Santa Maria in Turri, Medieval church in Rome, Vatican City

Santa Maria in Turri was a small church built against the outer facade of the atrium of the ancient Basilica of St. Peter, on the left side of the entrance. Its front coincided with that facade and had bronze doors. Above the entrance, a mosaic showed Christ in a cloud carried by angels, with the twelve Apostles below, and beneath it ran the inscription "Christe tibi sit honor Paulus quod decorat opus". Pope Nicholas V's name was added above the entrance around 1450.

Santa Maria in Turri grew from a square structure beneath the bell tower built by Pope Stephen II (752–757). Pope Paul I (757–767) decorated its facade with a mosaic of the Ascension, inscribed 'Christe tibi sit honor Paulus quod decorat opus'. On 8 June 1155 Adrian IV crowned Frederick Barbarossa in St. Peter's, and the king then swore fidelity in this church. In 1167 Barbarossa's troops burned it (penitus combusta et dissipata); it was demolished for the new basilica.

The church gave its name to the procession rites held around it: the palm procession on the Sunday before Easter and the candle procession on the feast of the Purification started here. Its other names, such as ante Salvatorem, referred to a nearby image of the Saviour, a copy of the Veronica kept in the basilica until the fire of 1167.

The church occupied a strategic location near the entrance to Saint Peter's Basilica's outer courtyard. Since the building no longer exists, visitors can explore its former site and understand its role within the historical layout of the sacred area.

The facade mosaic was commissioned by Pope Paul I (757–767), and its dedicatory line, "Christe tibi sit honor Paulus quod decorat opus", is recorded beneath the image. The Ascension scene placed Christ in a great cloud carried by angels, with the twelve Apostles grouped below, like the mosaic Paul I also ordered in the lower church of San Clemente.