Archaeology: The Lateran Reveals New Secrets

The work aiming to modernize the infrastructure of the Eternal City in view of the Holy Year 2025 is not only causing inconvenience to Romans stuck in traffic jams: on July 17, 2024, the Italian Ministry of Culture announced, in fact, that a team of archaeologists working outside the Basilica of Saint John Lateran recently uncovered a complex architectural structure.

The Ministry stated, “it’s an extraordinarily important discovery for the city of Rome and its medieval history, for no extensive archaeological excavation has ever been carried out in the square in modern times.”

The wall structure discovered is from between the 9th and 13th centuries. It could have “functioned both as a defensive wall for the papal residence and as a support for the slope that characterized the area of the Lateran in ancient times,” the archaeologists indicate.

The unearthed complex could have belonged to the “Patriarchio,” built at the request of Constantine the Great, on the site where the barracks of the Equites Singulares, the mounted guard of the Roman Emperor, was then located.

The “Patriarchio originally consisted of a basilica, but during the Middle Ages it was enlarged and renovated several times and became the papal seat,” the Ministry of Culture explains. This function ended in 1305 when the papal seat was moved to Avignon.

“The new discoveries in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano are yet another demonstration of the wealth of the Roman territory, an inexhaustible mine of archaeological treasures,” rejoices the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, who adds that “Every single stone speaks to us and tells its story: thanks to these important findings, archaeologists will be able to learn more about our past.”

And he justifies in passing the urban planning works that weigh on the Romans: “It is essential to combine the protection of our history with the needs of the protection and modernization of the urban fabric.”

The official residence of the Bishop of Rome since Constantine, the Lateran has existed for 17 centuries, which means 1,700 years of constructions, restorations, and frequent reorganizations. Despite its essential historical importance, the complex is still poorly understood, since its study can only be based on written sources, which are relatively few and difficult to interpret, and on a handful of pictorial representations.

The original building almost completely disappeared during the reconstruction ordered by Sixtus V (1585-1590), with the exception of the chapel of the Sancta Santorum and some fragments of the decoration, restored or even remade and reassembled outside of their original position (mosaic of the Triclinium of Leo XIII, fresco of the loggia of Boniface VIII).

A paradoxical situation explains the constant fascination of the palace for historians who will not fail to be fascinated by the latest discoveries made before the 2025 Jubilee.