Lateran Palace
The
Lateran Palace, sometimes more formally known as the
Palace of the Lateran, is an ancient
palace of the
Roman Empire and later a
Palace of the Popes. Adjacent to the
Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, the
cathedral church of
Rome,
Italy, the Lateran Palace is now home of the
Pontifical Museum of Christian Antiquities.
From the fourth century the Palace of the Lateran on Piazza San Giovanni in south-east
Rome was the principal residence of the Popes, and continued so for about a thousand years.
The site on which the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano sits was occupied during the early
Roman Empire by the
domus of the
gens Laterani. The Laterani served as administrators for several emperors; Sextius Lateranus was the first
plebeian to attain the rank of
consul. One of the Laterani, Consul-designate Plautius Lateranus, became famous for being accused by
Nero of conspiracy against the emperor. The accusation resulted in the confiscation and redistribution of his properties.
The
Domus Laterani fell into the hands of the emperor when
Constantine I married his second wife
Fausta, sister of
Maxentius. Known by that time as the
Domus Faustae or "House of Fausta," the structure was eventually given to the Bishop of Rome by Constantine. The actual date of the gift is unknown but scholars believe it had to have been during the pontificate of
Pope Miltiades, in time to host a
synod of
bishops in 313 that was convened to challenge the Donatist schism, declaring
Donatism as
heresy. The
basilica of the
domus was converted and extended, eventually becoming the cathedral of Rome, the seat of the popes as patriarchs of Rome: see
Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano.
In the tenth Century
Sergius III restored it after a disastrous fire, and later it was greatly embellished by
Innocent III. This was the period of its greatest magnificence, when
Dante speaks of it as beyond all human achievements. At this time the centre of the piazza in front, where now the obelisk stands, was occupied by the palace and tower of the
Annibaldeschi. Between this palace and the Lateran basilica was the equestrian statue of
Marcus Aurelius, then believed to represent Constantine, which now is at the
Campidoglio. The whole of the front of the palace was taken up with the
Aula Concilii ("Hall of the Councils"), a magnificent hall with eleven apses, in which were held the various
Councils of the Lateran during the medieval period. The private apartments of the popes in this palace were situated between this "Triclinium" and the city walls.
The fall of the palace from this position of glory was the result of the departure of the popes from
Rome during the
Avignon period.
Two destructive fires, in
1307 and
1361 respectively, did irreparable harm, and although vast sums were sent from Avignon for the rebuilding, the palace never again attained its former splendour. When the popes returned to Rome they resided first at
Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, then at
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and lastly fixed their residence at the
Vatican.
Sixtus V, more concerned with rationalized urban planning than the preservation of antiquities, then destroyed what still remained of the ancient palace of the Lateran in 1586 and erected the present much smaller edifice in its place.
The architect he employed, immediately upon his election, was
Domenico Fontana, who was engaged in alterations to the basilica at the same time. Fontana's strong restrained style, influenced by
Vignola and modelled upon
Palazzo Farnese for its regular and harmonious if somewhat bland major façade, and Fontana's sound engineering basis and power of co-ordinating a complicated architectural program on a tightly constrained site, which Sixtus urged forward at top speed, are remarkable. A notice on 29 August 1589 announced that the work had been completed: "A great palace in Piazza Lateranese has been brought to completion by Sixtus V."
[Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes From the Close of the Middle Ages, vol. X p 616.] Fontana reapplied motifs of the Lateran Palace in the part of the
Vatican Palace containing the present papal apartments, which he undertook later, and in his additions to the
Quirinal Palace. The east front was finished under
Clement XII, who surmounted it with his coat-of-arms in 1735.
The Lateran remained in a suburban environment, surrounded by gardens and vineyards, until the growth of modern Rome in the later nineteenth century. Its site was considered unhealthy in Rome's
malarial summers, however. In the late seventeenth century
Innocent XII sited in part of it a hospice for orphans, who were set to work in a little silk manufactury. In the nineteenth century
Gregory XVI founded in it a museum of religious art and pagan culture for overflow from the Vatican galleries, which developed into the
Museo Storico Vaticano. In 1926
Pius XI established an ethnographic museum devoted to artifacts sent back by missionaries. On 11 February 1929 the
Lateran treaties were signed here, at last regulating the relations between the Holy See and the Italian State and establishing that the basilica and Lateran Palace were integral
exclaves of the Papal State.
John XXIII returned to the palace some pastoral functions by fixing here the seat of the Vicariate and offices of the
diocese of Rome.
An apse lined with mosaics and open to the air still preserves the memory of one of the most famous halls of the ancient palace, the
Triclinium of
Leo III, which was the state banqueting hall. The existing structure is not ancient, but it is possible that some portions of the original mosaics have been preserved in a three-part mosaic: In the centre
Christ gives their mission to the
Apostles, on the left he gives the keys to St. Sylvester and the Labarum to Constantine, while on the right St. Peter gives the
stole to Leo III and the standard to
Charlemagne.
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palace - map of piazza and plates (
engravings)
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Google satellite map*
Riccardo Cigola, "St John Lateran"
