Excerpt from the Internet; Wen Chengde Baishi Courtyard
The church is outside the San Paolo Gate in the walls of Aurelio, hence the name. On the way to this church, there are two attractions that deserve special mention. One is a pyramid and the other is a non-Christian cemetery. A short distance south from the Hippodrome is the St. Paul's Gate, one of the gates of the ancient city walls, which is well preserved. On the wall to the right of the gate is the white pyramid called Cayo Chestio Epulone, an Egyptian-style mausoleum in ancient Rome built in 11 BC. About 300 years after its construction, Emperor Aurelio enclosed the lower part of the wall when he built it, and the white upper part is still exposed on the wall, which is now completely exposed and can be visited.
A large cemetery on the right rear side of the pyramid is the non-Christian cemetery. The English poet Keats was buried next to the tomb of his friend Shelley, but Shelley's tomb was empty because he drowned at sea near La Spezia. The tomb of Gramsci, the founder of the Italian Communist Party, is also here.
The church of St. Paul outside the city was built on Paul's original tomb by order of Constantine the Great in 324 AD. Paul was one of the founders of Christianity, and the letters signed by Paul are a major part of the New Testament. In 62 C.E., Paul was executed in Rome, and because Paul was a Roman, he could not be crucified like the others, but beheaded, and the place of execution was also to be chosen in the suburbs. According to legend, he was martyred in a place called "ad Aquas Salvias" (Water of Health).
This place is now called "Sanquan Town" because there are 3 springs there, and a small river ditch is called Sanquangou. Legend has it that after the saint was beheaded, his head jumped three times on the ground, and every time his head hit the ground, a spring gushed out. Now three churches have been built there, which are run by the Silent Ascetic Friars. After Paul's martyrdom, his body was buried next to the Boulevard Ostiense, and Constantine built the church on Paul's grave after he declared Christianity legal, but the church he built was destroyed by fire on July 15-16, 1823, and the current St. Paul's Cathedral was designed by Pauletti after the fire, rebuilt exactly according to the specifications of the old church, and opened in 1854 by the ribbon cutting by Pope Pius IX.
This church is one of the largest churches in Rome and its walls are covered with resplendent mosaics that can be seen from afar. The church faces east and west, and in front of it is a large courtyard with a square cloister, which was added at the beginning of the 20th century, surrounded by a long corridor supported by 146 white pillars. In the middle of the courtyard is a huge white marble statue carved by Obich for the saint.
The foundation stone of the statue is inscribed in Latin with the words "Proclaim the truth, educate all nations". The saint holds the sword in his hand, a symbol of his martyrdom (St. Paul was beheaded) and of his struggle for Christianity. In the other hand of the statue is a letter, his second letter to Timothy, in which St. Paul says goodbye to the Christians: "I have fought hard all my life, I have stood up for my faith, I have completed my life's journey, and now I am ready to die for the cause of Christ......"
The statue is surrounded by geometric patterns of flowers and plants, behind the statue is a row of horizontal stone columns, supporting a long corridor, above the corridor are 3 large windows, the walls between the windows are inlaid with colored stone tablets with the portraits of 4 prophets, 4 prophets above is a horizontal painting, in the middle a lamb is the incarnation of Jesus, on both sides are the sheep and two holy cities, on the left is Jerusalem, on the right is Rome, and then on the top of the triangular wall is inlaid with Jesus and two saints, Jesus is blessing, St. Peter and St. Paul are listening, and the top is a high cross. Because the background color of the wall is golden yellow, the portraits of these saints are particularly prominent, and the appearance of the whole church looks golden, but there is no extravagance in luxury. These beautiful polychrome mosaics are the work of the Vatican's mosaics. There is a black cross on the door on the far right of the corridor below, indicating that this is the Holy Door, one of the four basilicas of Rome, which is not open on weekdays, only during the Holy Year.
Like all neoclassical buildings, St. Paul's Cathedral has a solemn feel. The main entrance in the middle of the church is a bronze door, and the relief of the bronze door on the right depicts the life of St. Paul, and on the left is the life of St. Peter. As soon as we enter the church, we cannot help but feel its classical grandeur and solemnity. The majestic 80 large columns of marble and alabaster in 4 rows divide the church into 5 promenades, topped by gilded patterns, which are stunning in their splendor and imposing. With a length of 131.66 meters, a width of 65 meters and a height of 29.7 meters, the church is in the shape of a Latin cross, second only to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Such a palace and such an architectural masterpiece are undoubtedly the artistic wealth of mankind. The Apostolic Altar in the central corridor of the church is built on the tomb of St. Paul, and only the Pope is qualified to celebrate Mass at this altar.
Above the Apostolic Altar, we can see a fine saccharistic disc made by Arnolfo Di Cambio in the thirteenth century. This saccharistic disc and that fine arch that was given to this church by the Gothic queen Gala Pracidia in the fifth century survived that fire. The arches, canopies and apse with fine inlays from the thirteenth century are the originals of the old church that remained after that fire. The alabaster in the window frames was a gift from the Governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, and the Russian Tsar Nicholas I presented the malachite altar in the cruciform transept. The columns here are also characteristic, with small frames above them with portraits of 264 popes (according to the rule, the portrait of the new Pope Benedict XVI will also be added), which are mosaics, not oil paintings. [1] There are also 36 giant paintings depicting the life of St. Paul.
Next to this church is a monastery of Benedictine monks. This monastery is very beautiful, with green grass and bright flowers all year round. The 13th-century colonnade columns of this monastery are in the Kosmadi style, with elaborate mosaics, and the outer walls are remnants of the fire. There are also many stone monuments here, most of which were moved from the catacombs. The rules of the Benedictine Society are very strict, and one of the strictest is that the monks must keep their mouths shut, that is, they are not allowed to speak, and this is the case among the monks, and even more so with outsiders. Therefore, it is not known how many of them there are here, and how many of them are in other places.
(Note 1): There are now 266 portraits of popes.
Excerpt from The Eternal City – Rome and the Vatican
(Wen Chengde and Liu Ruting)
Shiraishi Koin