Basilique Saint-Paul-hors-les-Murs

Rome

To go to Rome, in the Middle Ages, was to go ad limina apostolorum, to the thresholds of the apostles: both of them, not one alone. At the other end of the city from the Vatican, on the road going down to the port of Ostia, the tomb of Paul was venerated, in the cemetery where tradition has him buried after his beheading. Constantine had the grave covered by a small basilica; from 386 three emperors, Theodosius, Valentinian II and Arcadius, replaced it with a vessel of five naves larger than that of the Vatican, consecrated in the late fourth century (390 or 391 according to the sources) and completed under Honorius: it was called the basilica of the three emperors. It was there, as much as at Saint Peter's, that the via Francigena ended. When Boniface VIII proclaimed the jubilee, on 22 February 1300, his bull expressly tied the indulgence to a visit to the two apostolic basilicas, on a certain number of days in succession: the crowd that pressed onto the Ponte Sant'Angelo crossed Rome from one tomb to the other. Of its great medieval age the church has kept the carved cloister of the Vassalletto, of the 13th century, and the marble paschal candlestick, of the end of the 12th. The rest burned in the night of 15 to 16 July 1823; it was rebuilt exactly as it had been, from 1825.

Wikipédia — Basilique Saint-Paul-hors-les-Murs ↗

Getting there : Metro line B, Basilica San Paolo station, a hundred metres from the portico. Free entry to the basilica; the cloister and the gallery of the popes can be visited on payment of an entrance fee. Decent dress required. From Saint Peter's, one can walk again the five kilometres that separate the two basilicas, by the Tiber and the porta San Paolo.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

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