In a quiet corner of Rome stands the church of Santa Costanza, which was originally the Mausoleum of Constantia and her sister Helena, daughters of the emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306-337). The central space is surrounded by an ambulatory, made up of 24 pairs of granite columns. The barrel vaulting of the ambulatory is decorated with a series of remarkable mosaics (4th century). The mausoleum was transformed into a baptistery before becoming a church in 1254. Both Constantia and Helena were interred here. Constantia's monumental porphyry sarcophagus is now on display in the Vatican Museums, Helena's has not survived. Comments are closed.
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My name is David Lown and I am an art historian from Cambridge, England.
Since 2001 I have been living in Italy, where I run walking tours of Florence, Rome & Venice. Search Pictures From Italy:
Blog Posts
November 2019
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