Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme cronologia storica

Ultimo aggiornamento il 5 ottobre 2026

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Valuta

Una residenza imperiale che un'imperatrice trasformò in reliquiario, ricostruita da un papa del XII secolo e rivestita di una faccia barocca nel XVIII.

Cronologia

Prima metà del III secolo d.C. — viene iniziato il Sessorium, complesso residenziale di proprietà imperiale che comprende il Circo Variano e l'Anfiteatro Castrense.
Inizio del IV secolo — il complesso è scelto come abitazione da Elena, madre dell'imperatore Costantino, che trasforma il grande atrio in una cappella per custodirvi le reliquie della Croce da lei portate a Roma. Attorno alla cappella viene edificata la basilica, detta anche "Eleniana" o "Sessoriana".
Epoca di Valentiniano III — l'originale del mosaico poi rifatto nella cappella di Sant'Elena.
1144 — Papa Lucio II ristruttura radicalmente la basilica, aggiungendo un portico ed erigendo il bel campanile in laterizi tuttora esistente.
XVI secolo — il mosaico della cappella è rifatto da Melozzo da Forlì o Baldassarre Peruzzi.
XVIII secolo — Benedetto XIV commissiona a Pietro Passalacqua e Domenico Gregorini la facciata, uno dei capolavori del barocchetto romano; quattro delle dodici colonne di granito vengono incorporate in pilastri.
1999 — le spoglie mortali della Serva di Dio Antonietta Meo, "Nennolina" (1930-1937), vengono deposte ai piedi della Cappella.
2003 — la Commissione Diocesana della Sindone dell'Arcidiocesi di Torino dona alla Basilica una copia della Sindone a grandezza naturale.
2004 — viene ricreato l'orto-giardino del monastero cistercense nell'area dell'Anfiteatro Castrense, con una porta in ferro e vetro di Jannis Kounellis.

Verificato su Turismo Roma, ottobre 2026.

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Fonti e verifica Riguarda le affermazioni documentate di questa pagina.

Verificato su Turismo Roma — Turismo Roma records that Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, included in the circuit of the Seven Churches that pilgrims anciently walked on foot, rises on the remains of the Sessorium, an imperial residential complex begun in the first half of the 3rd century AD which also included the Circus Varianus and the Amphitheatrum Castrense; that at the beginning of the 4th century the complex was chosen as a dwelling by Helena, mother of Constantine, who transformed the great atrium into a chapel to keep in it the relics of the Cross she had brought to Rome; and that the basilica was built around that chapel, for which reason it is also called "Eleniana" or "Sessoriana", Turismo Roma records that the basilica was radically restructured in 1144 by Pope Lucius II, who also added a portico and erected the fine brick campanile still existing; and that its present appearance is however due in large part to the works commissioned in the eighteenth century by Benedict XIV from Pietro Passalacqua and Domenico Gregorini, who created in the facade one of the masterpieces of Roman barocchetto with evident Borrominian derivations, Turismo Roma records that the chapel of Saint Helena, at the end of the right nave, is decorated by a mosaic — a sixteenth-century remaking by Melozzo da Forlì or by Baldassarre Peruzzi of an original of the age of Valentinian III — and is said to preserve under its pavement the earth of Calvary brought by Helena to Rome together with the relics, which are housed in the nearby Chapel of the Relics; and that the statue on the altar is a Roman original found at Ostia and transformed into a Saint Helena by the addition of the cross and the substitution of the head, Turismo Roma records that in a space adjoining the Chapel of the Relics have been placed a full-size copy of the Shroud — a gift to the Basilica from the Diocesan Shroud Commission of the Archdiocese of Turin in 2003 — and the shroud Crucifix made by monsignor Giulio Ricci, after whom the Diocesan Centre of Sindonology based here is named; and that at the foot of the Chapel, since 1999, rest the mortal remains of the Servant of God Antonietta Meo, known as "Nennolina" (1930-1937), a child who lived a few hundred metres from the Basilica in the 1930s and died at the age of six and a half of osteosarcoma, Turismo Roma records that in the area of the Amphitheatrum Castrense, for centuries an appurtenance of the basilica and its convent, the kitchen-garden of the Cistercian monastery was recreated in 2004, and that its iron and glass gate is the work of Jannis Kounellis (ottobre 2026).

Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme cronologia storica

Cronologia

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