Basilica di San Giovanni a Porta Latina

Roma Capitale records a foundation probably in the fifth century, which roof tiles with stamps of the Theodoric period seem to attest, a rebuilding at the end of the eighth century and a restoration in 1191. The dedication is to John the Evangelist, who by tradition survived the attempted martyrdom in boiling oil at the Porta Latina. The portico has five arches and keeps inside it the original Borrominian finial of San Giovanni in Oleo. The Romanesque campanile on the left is of the twelfth century, square, of five orders, with triple-light openings on colonnettes in the upper three. In the courtyard a ninth-century well stands between two columns with fourth-century capitals, inscribed round the mouth with the baptismal formula and the words EGO STEFANUS. The interior has three naves on two rows of five columns of differing marble, and the twelfth-century fresco cycle on the central nave, found during the restoration of 1940, shows 46 different scenes from the Old and New Testaments.