Mother and Head of All Churches

The Lateran Basilica is the only archbasilica in the world and is also known as the “Mother and Head of All Churches in Rome and in the World.” It is the seat of the Bishop of Rome, but is located outside Vatican City in the center of Rome. After Emperor Constantine had established religious freedom in the Roman Empire through the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, he transferred the Lateran Palace to the then Bishop of Rome, Miltiades.

The oldest basilica in the world

In 324, Pope Sylvester I consecrated the church to Christ the Saviour, making it the oldest basilica in the world. Through Popes Sergius III and Lucius II, it was then additionally dedicated to John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the 9^th and 12^th centuries, respectively. Thus it came to be officially named “Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran.”

Architecture and statues

After two devastating fires in the 14^th century, reconstruction began under Pope Sixtus V in the 16^th century, and in the 17^th century, Pope Innocent X commissioned extensive renovations to the interior under the direction of Francesco Borromini. This also included the creation of twelve niches for statues of the apostles, with the exception of Judas. Instead, a likeness of Paul of Tarsus was sculpted. The neoclassical façade was designed by Alessandro Galilei and completed in 1735.