Dimensions
231 x 280 x 16mm
Photographed by Grzegorz Galazka.
Rome is a city of churches. This richly illustrated volume, with specially commissioned photographs, illustrates the art and architecture of over 40 of Rome's most beautiful churches, charting the roots, growth, crises and renewals of Christianity's tumultuous past.
The book begins with the arrival in Rome of the Apostles Peter and Paul, their martyrdom, and the establishment of the Apostolic Succession of Roman Popes. Rome's catacombs still bear traces of the Apostles, as well as testimonies to the belief and practices of the earliest Christians. Next come the martyrs' shrines, where the persecuted faithful prayed and found the strength to defend - and sometimes die for - their faith.
The journey continues through the triumphal basilicas built after Christianity became the Empire's official religion. In the Middle Ages Roman monasteries kept culture and learning alive, and Cosmati craftsmen created marble pavements, peaceful cloisters and sparkling mosaics. The Renaissance Popes brought the finest architects of the time - among them Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo - to design the city's sacred buildings.
In the sixteenth century Catholic Counter-Reformation new religious orders, including the Jesuits, Oratorians and Theatines, built churches that emphasised the sacraments and preaching in reaction to the Protestant revolt in northern Europe. The Church revival in the seventeenth century saw an explosion of Baroque splendour, which transformed the horizon of the Eternal City.
The book concludes with Rome's Jubilee Basilicas, many of which were built by the Emperor Constantine himself, their art and architecture revealing different phases in Christianity's two-thousand-year history.
