40 Fun Facts About Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran

Pope Stephen VI tried an earlier pope, Formosus, in St. John Lateran in 897 despite what obstacle?

The accused was dead: the corpse of Formosus was dug up and questioned in the trial later nicknamed the Cadaver Synod. Found guilty, it had three fingers of its right hand cut off.

Which famous church is often mistaken for the pope's cathedral, the rank St. John Lateran really holds?

St. Peter's Basilica hosts most papal ceremonies because of its size, but it is not a cathedral at all. The pope's official seat as Bishop of Rome is across the city at the Lateran.

Which country's head of state automatically becomes the sole honorary canon of St. John Lateran?

France has held the honour since King Henry IV, and the title of First and Only Honorary Canon passed from its kings to its presidents.

The bronze central doors of St. John Lateran were taken in 1660 from which building in the Roman Forum?

The Senate House, or Curia Julia, lost its doors to the Lateran on the orders of Pope Alexander VII. A coin found inside them during the move dated the doors to the reign of Domitian.

How must pilgrims climb the 28 marble Holy Stairs kept in a sanctuary near St. John Lateran?

On their knees is the only way pilgrims may go up the Holy Stairs; four ordinary staircases alongside serve everyone else. Several popes have made the same climb.

Pope Innocent III is said to have dreamed of which saint holding up the Lateran basilica?

Francis of Assisi won the pope over after the dream, and Innocent gave the new order of friars his blessing. A fresco of the dream is among the best-known scenes in the basilica at Assisi.

By tradition, the Lateran's Holy Stairs once led to the Jerusalem headquarters of which official?

Pontius Pilate's praetorium is where tradition places the steps, which Jesus is said to have walked on his way to trial. Medieval Romans simply called them the Stairs of Pilate.

Which Roman emperor gave the Lateran palace to the Bishop of Rome in the early fourth century?

Constantine I came to own the estate through his wife Fausta, and a council of bishops was already meeting in the donated palace within a few years.

Which future Protestant reformer climbed the Lateran's Holy Stairs in 1510 and reached the top in doubt?

Martin Luther, then a young friar, said a prayer on every step but wondered at the top whether any of it was true. He posted his Ninety-five Theses seven years later.

Which Italian leader signed the 1929 Lateran Treaty for the king in the palace beside St. John Lateran?

Benito Mussolini signed for King Victor Emmanuel III, and Cardinal Pietro Gasparri for Pope Pius XI. The pact ended the long-running Roman question and recognised Vatican City as an independent state.

To which city did Pope Clement V move the papacy in 1309, ending the Lateran's time as the popes' home?

Avignon hosted the popes for most of the 14th century. Two fires gutted the Lateran while they were away, and on their return they settled at the Vatican instead.

A plaque by the doors of St. John Lateran proclaims it what?

Mother and head of all churches, in Latin omnium ecclesiarum mater et caput, is the claim. It rests on the basilica's rank as cathedral of the Bishop of Rome.

The Egyptian obelisk beside St. John Lateran lay buried for centuries under which Roman racetrack?

Circus Maximus was where the obelisk was raised in 357 and later toppled; its three broken pieces were dug out in 1587. It is the largest ancient Egyptian obelisk still standing anywhere.

Despite its popular name, St. John Lateran was first dedicated in 324 to whom?

Christ the Saviour was the original dedication and remains the primary one. The two Johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist, were added as co-patrons centuries later.

The word 'Lateran' in St. John Lateran recalls what, whose estate there was confiscated under Nero?

A wealthy Roman family, the Laterani, owned a palace on the site. Nero accused Plautius Lateranus of conspiracy and seized the property, which later passed into imperial hands.

Legend says which saint, an emperor's mother, brought the Lateran's Holy Stairs from Jerusalem?

Saint Helena is said to have brought the staircase to Rome around 326. Ancient tradition also makes her the finder of the True Cross during her tour of the Holy Land.

Why were the marble Holy Stairs near St. John Lateran boarded over in the 1720s?

Pilgrims were wearing them down after centuries of devotion, so the marble was encased for protection. In 2019 the bare steps were briefly uncovered for the first time in almost 300 years.

Which bronze animal, now a famous symbol of Rome, stood at the Lateran Palace during the Middle Ages?

A she-wolf, the Capitoline Wolf, gave its name to a spot at the papal palace where trials and executions were held. The bronze moved to the Capitoline Hill in 1471.

Which emperor's bronze equestrian statue stood by the Lateran until its 1538 move to the Capitoline Hill?

Marcus Aurelius survived the medieval melting pots because the rider was mistaken for an emperor the Church revered. More than twenty other imperial bronzes on horseback were melted down.

A mosaic from Pope Leo III's banqueting hall at the Lateran shows which Frankish king receiving a banner?

Charlemagne is shown being handed the standard, a picture of the Frankish king's duty to protect the Church. Leo III crowned him emperor in 800, and a copy of the mosaic made in 1743 still stands in the open air.

Pope Clement XII, whose tomb is in St. John Lateran, began which famous fountain in Rome?

The Trevi was begun under Clement XII, who also bought a great collection of antiquities for the papal gallery. His tomb lies in the Corsini Chapel he built inside the basilica.

The papal high altar of St. John Lateran encloses an ancient altar of which unusual material?

Wood, by tradition the very table at which the earliest popes said Mass, sits inside the marble casing. Unlike most great Roman churches, the altar stands over no martyr's tomb.

What kind of disaster almost totally destroyed St. John Lateran in the 890s, long before its two great fires?

An earthquake brought the church down from the altar to the doors, in a chronicler's phrase. The rebuilt basilica kept the old dimensions and stood for four hundred years.

Substantial remains of what, built by Septimius Severus, lie directly beneath the nave of St. John Lateran?

A cavalry barracks for the emperor's mounted bodyguard stood here from AD 193. The unit backed the losing side at the Milvian Bridge in 312, so it was abolished and its fort demolished.

The Lateran Baptistery, long the only baptistery in Rome, set a model across Italy with which ground plan?

An octagon of eight porphyry columns rings the font, which was built for baptism by full immersion. The design even became a motif in illuminated manuscripts, the Fountain of Life.

Which part of the medieval monastery beside St. John Lateran survives, famed for its glittering inlaid marble?

The cloister dates from the early 13th century and is the work of Vassalletto and the Cosmati marble workers. Monks who lived around it once provided the basilica's services.

In the 12th century, St. John Lateran's canons claimed their high altar held which biblical treasure?

The Ark of the Covenant, along with other holy objects from Jerusalem, was said to lie inside the altar. The claim cast the basilica as the Temple of the New Covenant.

Which Baroque contemporary of Bernini remodelled the nave of St. John Lateran for Pope Innocent X?

Francesco Borromini wrapped the ancient columns in huge piers and left twelve niches along the nave. They stayed empty for decades until statues of the Apostles filled them.

Alessandro Galilei, a distant relative of Galileo, won a contest to design which part of St. John Lateran?

The main façade was finished in 1735 after Galilei beat more than twenty rival architects. Pope Clement XII had called him to Rome only four years earlier to build a family chapel in the same church.

Among the nave statues of the Apostles in St. John Lateran, who stands in for Judas Iscariot?

Saint Paul takes the twelfth niche rather than Matthias, the usual replacement. The marble giants were carved between 1704 and 1718 by the leading sculptors of late Baroque Rome.

A fresco fragment in St. John Lateran, painted for the Jubilee of 1300, is credited to which painter?

Giotto is credited with the cycle, made for the Holy Year that Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed. Boniface, one of the painter's patrons, had Rome's great churches restored for the occasion.

The Third Lateran Council of 1179 set which lasting rule for the cardinals electing a pope?

A two-thirds majority was meant to prevent the kind of split seen in 1159, when divided cardinals elected two rival popes. Conclaves still require the same share of votes.

The Holy Stairs at the Lateran lead up to which chapel, the private oratory of the medieval popes?

Sancta Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies, takes its name from the relics kept under its altar in a cypress chest. It is the only part of the old papal palace that was never pulled down.

A marble papal throne kept at St. John Lateran bears a Latin nickname recalling which lowly place?

A dunghill gives the sedia stercoraria its name, from a psalm verse sung at papal coronations about the poor being lifted out of the dirt. New popes sat on it during the ceremony.

Which pope, whose feast gives New Year's Eve its German name, dedicated the Lateran basilica in 324?

Sylvester I renamed the former imperial residence the House of God when he dedicated it. He died on 31 December 335, which is why that night is called Silvester in German-speaking lands.

Which pope pulled down the ruined Lateran Palace in the 1580s and raised the obelisk beside it?

Sixtus V had his architect Domenico Fontana build the smaller palace seen today and re-erect the obelisk in 1588. He also moved the Holy Stairs to their present site.

St. John Lateran and its palace stand on which of the seven hills of ancient Rome?

The Caelian puts the pope's cathedral on the far side of the city centre from the Vatican, which lies across the Tiber to the north-west.

The Lateran Obelisk, made for Karnak, was begun for which pharaoh, the stepson of Hatshepsut?

Thutmose III died before it was finished, and the shaft lay on its side for 35 years until his grandson Thutmose IV had it raised.

Which Renaissance composer of the Pope Marcellus Mass was choirmaster at St. John Lateran from 1555 to 1560?

Giovanni da Palestrina arrived after Pope Paul IV's rules forced him out of his Vatican post as a layman. Orlande de Lassus had held the Lateran job just before him.

Which priest, nicknamed the Apostle of Rome, began the walk to seven pilgrim churches including St. John Lateran?

Philip Neri drew up the route around 1553 to mix prayer with good company, giving a short sermon at each stop. The circuit is still known as the Seven Churches Walk.