Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura historical timeline

A deacon's grave that drew a Constantinian basilica, a second church built over it, a third built against it the wrong way round, and a bomb in 1943 that sent the whole thing back to the Middle Ages.

Chronology

1. 3rd century — Lawrence, a deacon of Spanish origin, is martyred under the emperor Valerian and buried in the cemetery of Ciriaca, along the Via Tiburtina.
2. 4th century — the Emperor Constantine has the tomb of Saint Lawrence arranged and embellished and builds a great cemeterial basilica nearby, the basilica maior.
3. Late 6th century — Pope Pelagius II has a new church built, with three naves and practicable galleries (matronei), completely enclosing the sepulchre — the basilica minor. The apse mosaic of this period shows him offering Christ the model of that church.
4. 9th–12th century — the ancient basilica maior is destroyed.
5. 1084–1100 — Clement III builds the cloister and begins the fortification of the borgo, Laurentiopolis, grown up around the basilica.
6. 1148 — the ciborium is made: the oldest work signed by Roman marble-workers.
7. around 1220 — the portico attributed to the Vassalletto marble-workers is built.
8. 1216–1227 — Honorius III Savelli gives the complex its present appearance, erecting a new church which replaces the Pelagian basilica by incorporating it and transforming it into the presbytery after reversing its orientation.
9. 1243–1254 — Innocent IV has the presbytery raised and commissions the papal throne; the episcopal throne is dated 1254.
10. 1855–1864 — the rather radical restoration by Virgilio Vespignani.
11. 1943 — the bombing. The reconstructions that follow almost completely eliminate Vespignani's work and try to give the church back its medieval appearance; the facade is completely rebuilt.

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