Three Churches Built One Above Another

The Church of St. Clement, at Rome, was long thought to be the most ancient and the least altered of all Christian Churches in that old city; but recent discoveries of extraordinary interest have opened up two other churches beneath it which are still more ancient. The upper church retains more of the details belonging to primitive ecclesiastical architecture than any other building in Rome. It was built in memory of St. Clement, fellow laborer of St. Paul, and third bishop of Rome. It was altered in 772 by Adrian I., and by John VIII. in A. D. 800, and again restored in 1099 by Pascal II., who was elected to the papacy within its walls. The church is rich in paintings and mosaics; from the sacristy, a stairway leads to the "Lower Church," first discovered in 1857. There several pillars may be seen, of the rarest marbles, in perfect preservation, also a series of very curious frescoes of the eighth and ninth centuries, some portions of which are uninjured. These include the Crucifixion, with the Virgin and St. John standing by the Cross, the earliest representation of this subject in Rome; also the Ascension (now called by Romanists the Assumption of the Virgin), and many others.

Beneath this "Lower Church" is still a third structure, discovered in 1867, probably the very house or oratory of St. Clement, richly decorated in stucco; some suppose it to be the cavern near St. Clement's, to which the Emperor Otho III. withdrew, spending fourteen days in penitential retirement.

At certain times of the year these subterraneous churches are brilliantly illuminated.