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St. Lawrence outside the Walls

Saint Lawrence outside the Walls (San Lorenzo fuori le Mura) is a basilica in Rome, one of the five most important. Saint Lawrence is buried in the basilica. It is one of the places where it is possible to gain Jubilee indulgence.

It takes its origins from a small oratory built by the Emperor Constantine over the martyr's burial place in 330. Next to the oratory, Constantine built a Roman (civil) basilica.

In 580s, Pope Pelagius II built a basilica devoted to the saint. In 13th century, Pope Honorius III built another basilica in front of the previous, and united to it, as part of a programme of urban renewal; the frescos depicting the life of Saint Lawrence and of Saint Stephen inside the portico are from this period.

After 1374 and until 1847, St. Lawrence basilica was the base of onorary Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem.

The church was bombed in 1943, during World War II; the restoration lasted from 1943 to 1948, allowing some nineteenth-century accretions to be removed.

Besides St Lawrence, Pope Pius IX is also buried in the church.

Last updated: 01-04-2007 01:18:57
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