Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls, Papal basilica in Rome, Italy
The Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls is a five-nave papal basilica on the Via Ostiense, the largest in Rome after Saint Peter's. Its facade carries a gold, blue, red and white mosaic above a colonnade of smooth pale columns, with a robed figure holding a staff on a pedestal before it. The nave's 80 columns and its wood-and-stucco ceiling date from the 19th-century reconstruction.
Construction began in 386 under Emperor Theodosius I over the apostle's burial site and consecration followed a few years later. A fire destroyed the building almost completely in 1823 and reconstruction took several decades.
Since the first Holy Year in 1300 the basilica has been on the Jubilee pilgrimage route, and the Holy Door is opened here in the rite that begins each Jubilee. Benedictine monks of the adjoining abbey have cared for the liturgy and the votive lamp on the apostle's tomb since the 8th century.
The church opens daily from 7 in the morning until half past 6 in the evening and entrance to the main hall is free. The medieval cloister requires a fee of 4 euros and sits to the side of the main entrance.
The bronze doors with 54 panels of biblical scenes come from Constantinople in the 11th century and survived as one of the few original elements through the fire. The individual panels show detailed depictions from the Old and New Testament in Byzantine style.
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