Rome's Cathedral, Not the Vatican's
Stand on the pavement of Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano and look up: the façade above you reads like a palace front, completed in 1735 under Pope Clement XII, its Latin inscription dedicating the building to Christ the Saviour in honour of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. This is the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome and the seat of the pope as Bishop of Rome. It is the oldest public church in the city and the oldest basilica in the Western world, founded in 324 — and the only archbasilica in the world. Because it is the pope's cathedral, it ranks above every other church in the Catholic Church, St Peter's included. Between the main portals a plaque makes the claim in stone: mother and head of all the churches in the city and the world.
That status has a strange, tangible consequence. The archbasilica stands outside Vatican City proper, yet as property of the Holy See it enjoys extraterritorial status under the Lateran Treaty of 1929. You are, in a quiet legal sense, standing on papal ground in an ordinary Roman square.
Bronze Doors from the Senate House, an Apse of Gold
The building you enter is a palimpsest. It sits over the demolished fort of the imperial cavalry guard, and substantial remains of that fort lie directly beneath the nave. The central bronze doors were brought here from the Curia Julia, the Roman Senate House in the Forum. Inside, Francesco Borromini's late-17th-century renovation gives you a five-aisle nave lined with twelve lofty niches, each filled by a colossal statue of an apostle set there in 1718 — look for St Bartholomew carrying his own flayed skin. Above them, white stucco reliefs designed by Alessandro Algardi in 1659 pair Old and New Testament scenes as a biblical concordance.
Walk to the far end and stop. The 13th-century apse mosaic by the Franciscan friars Jacopo Torriti and Jacopo da Camerino shows the Saviour among clouds and angels, with saints ranged below — Paul, Peter, Francis, the Virgin, John the Baptist, Anthony, John the Apostle, Andrew — and a small figure of Pope Nicholas IV. Water flows from the dove of the Holy Spirit down the Cross in four streams, the Gospels, into the Jordan, where stags and sheep drink.
At the high altar stands a Gothic baldacchino of 1369 on four marble columns, its upper part holding busts of Peter and Paul, traditionally said to contain their skulls or parts of them. Beneath it the papal altar encloses the ancient wooden altar used by the first thirteen popes. On the façade, fifteen colossal statues crown the entablature: Christ the Saviour at the centre, flanked by the two Johns, then the twelve Doctors of the Greek and Latin Churches.
Doors, Stairs and the Obelisk Outside
Of the five entrance doors, the rightmost is the Holy Door, opened every twenty-five years for the Jubilee — a ritual first performed in this basilica by Martin V in 1423 before it spread to the other Roman basilicas. On the square outside, the obelisk is the tallest and oldest in Rome: a 15th-century BC monolith from the Karnak temple at Thebes, brought to the city and erected in the Circus Maximus in 357 AD, later broken and buried, excavated in the sixteenth century and set on its new pedestal by Sixtus V in 1588.
Just outside, in a small park, a sculpture group of St Francis and his companions faces the façade with arms outstretched; from a certain vantage behind the statue he appears to hold up the church, recalling Pope Innocent III's dream of the falling church supported by Francis, who was then in Rome seeking approval of his rule. Nearby are the Holy Stairs, the Scala Sancta: twenty-eight marble steps from the old Lateran Palace, traditionally held to have been brought from Jerusalem by St Helena. Pilgrims ascend them on their knees; they have been encased in protective wood since the early 1700s.
Making the Most of Your Visit
Come with the building's calendar in mind. The basilica's titular feast is the Transfiguration, 6 August, and the anniversary of its dedication has been observed since the twelfth century on 9 November. If you are in Rome in mid-May, watch for La settimana dei beni culturali, the week when publicly owned landmarks and sites are free; government-owned museums and sites are also free on the first Sunday of every month. The pope, as Bishop of Rome, celebrates Holy Thursday Mass here and blesses the congregation from the façade portico — if you attend, dress as you would for any church, covering knees and shoulders.
Give the interior unhurried time rather than a quick circuit: the apse mosaic, the baldacchino and the apostle statues reward a slow second pass. The one thing not to leave without seeing is that mosaic, which most casual visitors miss by turning back at the transept. Pair the visit with the Scala Sancta next door, and note that the former adjacent monastery has vanished, leaving only its 13th-century cloister.
What Else Is Nearby
The Lateran sits in the southeast of central Rome, well placed for a day that reaches across the city's layers. Onward from here you could head for the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, or climb the Palatine Hill. In the other direction lie the Pantheon, and across the river the Vatican Museums with the Sistine Chapel. A Roma Pass, if you are staying at least three days, covers public transport and free entry to your first two museums or archaeological sites and can spare you the queue at the Colosseum.
Start with a map of the southeast quarter, pick a morning, and set aside enough time to stand in front of the apse mosaic without checking your watch. The Lateran has been the mother church of Rome for seventeen centuries; it will not hurry you, and you should not hurry it.