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Neighbourhood Treasures
Hotel Lancelot is located in one of Rome's richest historical areas.
Around the Lancelot you will find remarkable sites
tracing Roman life from its grand imperial past,
through the middle ages to its ever dynamic present.
Below
are some brief notes
on sights of exceptional interest within walking
vicinity of the Lancelot. We strongly
recommend a visit to San
Clemente - the excavations under this church
provide a dramatic introduction to Rome's living
history. Map and directions
for walks in the neighborhood are also given in
our section on sightseeing
in Rome.
An essay on the
neighbourhood history by art
historian Richard Ingersoll brings to life the
long and changing story of this part of Rome.
San
Clemente - Via San Giovanni in Laterano
This
basilica, less than a block away from Hotel
Lancelot,
is one of the most fascinating sites in Rome:
you can time travel through three
layers of history one on top of the other to
experience Rome's long and continuously changing
history. The upper
level of the current church dates back to the 12th
century, the one below
to the 4th century and the foundations to
antiquity.
The
schola cantorum, a walled marble choir,
survived
a fire during the Norman sacking of Rome in 1084,
and was moved upstairs to the new church where it
still stands. However the most stricking feature
is the 12th century mosaic in the apse. On your
left as you enter are wonderful frescoes by
Masolino. Steps
lead down the 4th century basilica where fading
frescoes depict the life of Saint Clement.
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Santi
Quattro Coronati
As
you go out of the Hotel Lancelot gate, to the
right, the round building you see is the back of the
Santi Quattro Coronati basilica that dates
back to the 4th century. The silent and beautiful
cloister with delicately carved pillars and 12th
century fountain will take you back in time.
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San
Giovanni in Laterano
San
Giovanni was built around 313, and is Rome's official
cathedral. Little remains of the original basilica
and additions continued to be made throughout the
centuries.The interior was last transformed in 1646
by Borromini, whereas the facade, surmounted by
15 huge statues, was designed by Alessandro Gallei
in 1735.
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Santo
Stefano Rotondo
This
church,with it's rare circular structure is one
of the oldest in Rome. The marvellous circular
hall contains 22 Ionic columns, and the walls are
frescoed with graphic scenes of ghastly martyrdoms.
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The
Colosseum
This
extraordinarily famous monument is at the end of
the street from the Hotel Lancelot. Tickets are required
to visit this site. To avoid long queues you could
consider purchasing a "combo" multi-site ticket
from a less frequented museum or from the Palatine
entrance close to the colosseum.
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The
Imperial Roman Forum
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The
Roman Forum and the Palatine hill are next to the
Colosseum and can be visted on foot from the
Lancelot.
Access to most of the Forum area is now free. However,
a ticket is required to visit the adjoining Palatine
hill.
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Domus
Aurea - Nero's Golden Palace
Nero's
impressive golden palace was finally opened to the
public in 1999 after 18 years of restoration works. Visits to the excavations
are limited to small groups and must be booked in
advance. The Lancelot staff can assist you with
reservations. We advise you take a guided tour or
hire headphones.
San
Pietro in Vincoli
Houses
the mighty Moses by Michelangelo. Conserved in the
reliquary on the main altar are the chains said
to have been used to shackle Saint Peter in
Jerusalem.
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From
the Gardens of Nero to Realm of Pope Joan.
Courtesy
of Richard Ingersoll, art historian.
A
stone’s throw from the Colosseum to the north
and St. John’s in the Lateran to the south,
the Hotel Lancelot is framed by a rich texture
of historical remnants. While the hotel may seem
relatively new, occupying a 1930s apartment building
and located on a street that was laid out at the
end of the 19th century, its closest neighbors are
among the oldest and most historically charged sites
of Rome.
The
Lancelot lies in a valley between the Oppian
and Celian hills, an area that was confiscated
by the Emperor Nero after the famous fire of 64
AD for the gardens of his Domus Aurea (or
Golden House), an immense pleasuredome that skirted
the Oppian hill. To indulge Nero’s theatrical whims
the Domus Aurea (the subterranean remains of which
have recently been reopened for tourist visits--be
sure to dress warmly!) looked over an artificial
lake, around which were placed miniature settings
of famous places of the Mediterranean basin. Directly
across from the Domus Aurea Nero constructed on
the Celian Hill a magnificent temple platform, the
Claudium, dedicated to his deified uncle
Claudius, who had preceded him as emperor. Today
the remains of the platform comprise the orchards
of the 13th-century convent of Ss. Giovanni and
Paolo.
After
Nero’s demise and the popular uprisings that ensued
in response to his tyrannical excesses, the new
Flavian dynasty of emperors attempted to mollify
public opinion with the celebrated policy of "panem
et circensis" (bread and circuses), replacing the
lake in Nero’s gardens with the immense vaulted
structure of the Colosseum. This oval amphitheater,
which seated 60,000 spectators for gladiatorial
games, hunts with live animals, and mock sea battles,
quickly became the symbol for the city and with
time the metaphor for Rome’s claim on eternity.
The Colosseum took its name from a colossal 100-foot
statue, originally designed as a portrait of Nero
in the guise of Helios, the sun god, and subsequently
restyled as an anonymous sun god. The magnificent
Arch of Constantine, the last triumphal arch
to be built until the renaissance revival of ancient
types, stands gracefully at the junction overlooking
the Colosseum and the Via Sacra leading into the
Forum district. If you look closely you will see
the arch is a patchwork, composed of fragments taken
from other triumphal monuments.
Just
south of the Colosseum at the beginning of Via San
Giovanni in Laterano lies a conspicuous archeological
dig, the Ludus Magnus, showing the foundations
of a smaller oval amphitheater that served the barracks
of the gladiator school. During this period, the
site of the Hotel Lancelot, like much of the district,
most likely served for military barracks.
Farther
south on Via San Giovanni in Laterano stands a church,
San Clemente, which seems rather modest on
the exterior but reveals on entry not only one of
the most splendidly decorated interiors in Rome
but also one of the most astounding testimonies
of the coverup of time. If you proceed through the
12th-century nave, pass the brilliant gold mosaics
of the apse and across a pavement of swirling pre-Cosmati
marble inlays, you come to a side stair that leads
down to the cavernous labyrinth of two earlier cult
sites, a 5th century Christian basilica and beneath
it a 2nd-century Mithraeum.
Once
at the bottom, about 30 feet under ground you should
be surprised to learn that this was originally the
street level. Equally surprising is the evidence
of a major alternative mystery cult to the nascent
sect of Christianity. The initial building of the
1st century served briefly as an imperial mint,
was transformed into a private dwelling, and its
garden nympheum was converted into a temple for
Mithras, a god of Persian origin usually depicted
slaying a bull. Christianity prevailed over this
Zoroastrian competitor, and in the process
buried the Mithraeum, using it as the foundations
for the apse of the church. Due to the rising level
of the surrounding terrain and the poor structure
of the initial basilica, it in turn was covered
over and used as the foundations for the 12th-century
church.
After
the 4th-century transition to Christianity, the
gradual decline of the Roman empire, the religious
anathema of theater and games (which led to legends
of Christians being fed to lions), and the various
barbarian Sacks, beginning with that of Alaric in
410, the area around the Colosseum, which was eventually
converted into a fortress, assumed a new semi-rural
character. The focus of activities became the isolated
religious sites, the most important being St.
John’s in the Lateran, one of the two churches
founded by Emperor Constantine after his conquest
of power as a Christian convert in 312. The Lateran
became the cathedral of the city and until the 15th
century was the principal dwelling for the Pope
and his court. While the basilica was radically
altered under the guidance of Borromini in the 17th
century and the sprawling dilapidated Lateran palace
was demolished and replaced by Sixtus V at the end
of 16th century at the same time he planted the
obelisk in the piazza, the octagonal Lateran
Baptistry is still recognizable as the original
5th-century structure, although encrusted with Baroque
decorations.
The
remains of the Acqua Claudia acqueduct which
took water to the imperial palace on the Palatine
hill, protrude from the buildings across the piazza
from the Lateran Baptistry and can be followed with
some interuptions along the crest of the hill going
southwest.
This
leads you past the medieval hospital of the
Lateran, one of the oldest in the world, and eventually
to the enigmatic round church of Santo Stefano
Rotondo. Built in the late 5th century, when
the longitudinal basilica type was not yet formalized
as the standard form of church design, it is unique
in its central plan. The central cylinder is supported
by an ionic colonnade and lit by upper clearstories,
creating a mysterious luminous core. The surrounding
ambulatory was frescoed in the late 16th and early
17th century with some of the most gruesome scenes
of martyrdom in the history of art.
Just
to the west of Santo Stefano Rotondo is a piazza
with the shipshaped fountain of the Navicella
that indicates the entry to Villa Celimontana.
Originally built for Giacomo Mattei with formal
gardens in the late 16th century, the villa and
the gardens have been successively remodelled into
a more casual English garden now used as a public
park. During the pilgrimages organized by St. Filippo
Neri, Villa Mattei became famous on the walk to
the seven basilicas as the midway point where pilgrims
would have their picnics.
Finally
we must discern who was Pope Joan, la Papessa
Giovanna, the legendary female nemesis to the exclusively
male office of the papacy. The area around the Hotel
Lancelot can indeed be called her turf. The little
aedicule housing an image of the Madonna located
between San Clemente and the Hotel Lancelot in the
popular imagination was believed to be an "imago
papissa," a shrine to the ill-fated female pope.
The legend, as transcribed by the Vatican librarian
Platina in the late 15th century, held that Joan,
a brilliant theological student, had concealed her
gender and entered holy orders as a Benedictine
monk. She was elected as Pope John VII in the 9th
century by virtue of her great eloquence and succeeded
in concealing her gender for two years from the
court. Following a dalliance with a servant she
became pregnant and allegedly gave birth during
a procession while passing through the Colosseum.
The
area between the Colosseum and San Clemente was
thought to be the scene of her demise where she
and her child met their death. So strong was the
legend that until the late 16th century the procession
for the papal inauguration, perhaps the most important
ritual in the career of a pope, specifically avoided
passing through the Colosseum or travelling on that
stretch of the Via Labicana leading from the Colosseum
to the Lateran so as not to be associated with the
story of Pope Joan.
The
detour of the route passed up the steep hill past
the medieval convent of SS. Quattro Coronati, thought to be the first convent built inside the
walls of Rome (the apse of which is seen as you
look to the right from the gates of the Hotel).
The legend of Pope Joan was officially discredited
by the Church in the 1570s. Sixtus V ran a new straight
street from the Colosseum to the Lateran, anchored
at that end by the obelisk, in effect obviated the
old Labicana route or the alternative past SS. Quattro
Coronati, but the area around the Hotel Lancelot
in its quiet isolation might still claim with some
irony to be set off as the realm of Pope Joan.
Richard
Ingersoll, 24-VIII-2000
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