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Thirty-six murals line the walls of this church depicting dozens of ways to die. Santo Stefano Rotondo was consecrated sometime in the mid-400s, but its macabre artwork was added sometime in the 16th century. These murals show Roman martyrs being flayed, boiled, vivisected, roasted, crucified, and buried alive. The name of the emperor who ordered each...Read More

On the north flank of the Circus Maximus, where Roman emperors presided over breakneck chariot races, there is a small and unassuming message affixed low on a brick wall. It doesn’t commemorate a historic event or a work of art. It bears just three short Italian words and a date: “Mi sono perso. XVII-IX-MMX”: “I am...Read More

One of the largest secret Mithraic temples in Rome is hidden next to the famous Circus Maximus. Discovered in 1931 as part of Rome’s fascist-era building projects, the small subterranean space was once dedicated to the mystery cult of the god Mithras. Although several mithraeums have been discovered throughout the ancient holding of the Roman Empire,...Read More

St. Peter’s Basilica is an astounding and massive wonder, filled with sculpture, art, frescoes, woodworking, reliquaries, and more. But not many people know that five stories beneath this architectural marvel lie ruins that date back to the founding of the Roman Empire. If you stand near the altar at St. Peter’s (it’s the one with the...Read More

In a cobblestone alley near the Piazza del Popolo, a weather-striped window showcases the porcelain heads, limbs, and bodies of dolls long lost and in complete disrepair. Above the ghastly repository of broken faces pressed to the glass, small owl figurines perch menacingly. What appears to be Rome’s own little shop of horrors is actually the...Read More