Basilica of San Clemente

The Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio was founded by Pope Simplicius between 468 and 483 and is dedicated to Saint Stephen, a martyr whose body had been found a few decades earlier in the Holy Land and transported to Rome. The church was embellished by Popes John I and Felix IV in the 6th century. In 1130, Innocent II added three transverse arches to support the dome. In 1454, Pope Nicholas V entrusted the ruined church to the care of the Hungarian Pauline Fathers. The church was restored by Bernardo Rossellino. In 1579, the Hungarian Jesuits took over from the Pauline Fathers.

A first church was built here in antiquity, mentioned in the acts of the synod of Pope Simmaco in 499. Pope Paschal I (817-824) had the basilica rebuilt in 818-822, endowing it with mosaics. The appearance of the present church of Santa Maria in Domnica, however, owes much to a reconstruction in the 16th century, when the church was closely linked to the Medici family.

The Basilica of Saints John and Paul was first erected in 398. This original church was damaged during the sack of Rome (410), then by an earthquake in 442 and was finally sacked by the Normans in 1084. The building was continually remodelled from the 11th century onwards and the building had its present appearance in 1951 when Cardinal Franz Joseph Spellman had its early Christian façade restored.