Buried for a thousand years under earthquake debris, the sixth-century Church of Santa Maria Antiqua in the Roman Forum in Rome reopened.
The church, which holds some of the world’s earliest Christian art, underwent a 30-year, €2.-million restoration funded by the Italian government and the World Monuments Fund.
Called “The Sistine Chapel of the Middle Ages,” the church was buried in an AD 847 earthquake and only rediscovered in 1900. The interior is decorated with “multi-coloured frescoes of saints, martyrs, angels and emperors,” and one of the world’s oldest Madonna and Child icons, according to The Telegraph.
The fact the church was buried likely saved it from alterations. It’s housed in the vast Roman Forum at the foot of Rome’s Palatine Hill, where Roman emperors lived in grand palaces.
The church is now open for visitors.
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