Santi Cosma e Damiano

Step in from the traffic of Via dei Fori Imperiali, and the noise drops away almost at once. A quiet cloister opens around you, with arches, potted plants and the soft scrape of shoes on stone. Then you move into the church, and the light changes. It is dimmer here, and warmer. High above the altar, in a curved wall of gold and deep blue, a figure seems to walk toward you across the clouds. This is the Basilica of Santi Cosma e Damiano, and that figure has walked across that wall for about fifteen hundred years.

Before we look up again, think about where you are standing. Just outside these walls lies the Roman Forum, the old political heart of the ancient city. For centuries this ground was full of temples, law courts and public halls. This church did not replace those buildings. It moved into them. The walls around you were Roman public buildings first and a Christian church second. That is unusual, even in Rome.

The change happened in the sixth century. In the year 527, Pope Felix the Fourth received two ancient buildings here and turned them into a single church. Rome at that time was ruled by the Ostrogoths, a Germanic people who had taken control of Italy after the fall of the western empire. Their royal family allowed the gift. So a pope, a Gothic court and the ruins of imperial Rome all meet in one decision. Many historians describe this as the first church built inside the Forum itself.

The church is named after two brothers, Cosmas and Damian. According to Christian tradition, they were twin physicians from the eastern Mediterranean, in the region of Syria. They were known for one thing above all — they treated the sick without asking for money. The Greek-speaking Christian world gave them a special title for this, which means the ones without silver. Tradition says they were killed for their faith during the persecutions of the Roman period. The details of their lives come mostly from legend, but their reputation as healers spread across the whole Christian world.

There is a quiet logic in placing them here. Nearby, in pagan times, Romans honoured Castor and Pollux, another famous pair of twins. Some scholars suggest that two Christian twin saints, both of them healers, offered a natural replacement in the same neighbourhood. Nobody can prove that this was the plan. But it is a good example of how Rome changed its faith. Very often the city did not break with the past. It took the past and gave it new meaning.

Now look up at the apse, the curved space behind the altar. This mosaic dates from the sixth century, and it is one of the finest of its age in the city. Christ stands in the centre, in golden robes, on a path of red and blue clouds. Behind him the sky shows the colours of dawn. He does not sit on a throne. He moves forward, one hand raised, as if he has just arrived. Early viewers would have seen the Second Coming in this image.

On either side, Saint Peter and Saint Paul lead the two brothers toward Christ. Cosmas and Damian carry crowns, the reward of martyrs. At the far ends stand two more figures. One is Saint Theodore, a soldier saint. The other is Pope Felix the Fourth himself, holding a small model of this very church. His figure has been restored over the centuries, so not every stone on him is original. Still, it is a striking idea... the founder stands inside his own artwork, offering the building to heaven.

Here is a detail many visitors miss. Look near the edge of the mosaic for a palm tree with a small bird on it. That bird is a phoenix, the mythical creature that burns and rises again from its ashes. Christians used it as a symbol of resurrection. Below the main scene runs a band with a lamb on a small hill. Four rivers flow from beneath it, the rivers of paradise. Twelve sheep walk toward the lamb from two cities, one on each side. The sheep stand for the apostles.

Now a second surprise — the floor under your feet is not the original floor. Over many centuries, rubble, flood mud and rising streets lifted the ground level around the Forum. The old church became damp and sank below the city. In 1632, under Pope Urban the Eighth, the building was rebuilt and the floor was raised by several metres. The mosaic stayed where it was. That is why it now feels so close to you. In the sixth century, worshippers looked at it from much farther below.

Look up at the wooden ceiling. It belongs to that seventeenth century rebuilding. Among its carved and painted panels you may spot bees. The bee was the family symbol of the Barberini, the powerful Roman family of Pope Urban the Eighth. Their bees appear on fountains, palaces and churches all across Rome. Once you learn to see them, you will find them everywhere in the city. Here they mark the pope who saved this church from the damp.

At the back of the church, there is a glass window. Through it you can look into a round ancient building on the Forum side. This rotunda is often called the Temple of Romulus. Some say it honoured Romulus, a young son of the emperor Maxentius, while other scholars see it as a grand entrance hall. From the Forum, you can see its bronze doors. They are ancient, and they are among the very few Roman doors in the city still standing in their original place.

One more story belongs to the outside wall, facing the old Forum of Peace. In ancient times, a huge marble map of the city hung on this wall. It showed Rome street by street and building by building. The map broke into thousands of pieces long ago, and scholars still work to fit the fragments together. When you walk outside, look at the old brick wall. You can still see small holes where the metal fixings once held the marble slabs in place.

Before you leave, stop in the cloister again. In a room just off it, there is a large Neapolitan nativity scene from the eighteenth century, full of tiny shepherds, animals, market stalls and village houses. Ask at the entrance how to see it. Then stand for a moment by the arches. Behind you is a sixth century Christ on the clouds. Beyond the walls are the ruins that gave this church its stones. And in front of you is the modern road, with buses and scooters passing by. All of Rome is in this short walk.