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Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore Historical Timeline

Last updated on September 29, 2026

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A church begun in the decade after the Council of Ephesus, decorated with the earliest great images of the Virgin, and rebuilt around rather than replaced for sixteen centuries.

Chronology

c. 352 — the legendary foundation. A childless Roman patrician, John, and his wife vow their property to the Virgin; snow falls on the summit of the Esquiline on 5 August, at the height of the Roman summer, and they build a church on the spot it covered. Structural impact: none that can be traced — the legend is first reported only after AD 1000. What you see today: the basilica's other name, Our Lady of the Snows, and the feast kept on 5 August.
420s — a pre-existing building on the site is adapted as a church under Pope Celestine I, according to some sources; the name "Liberian Basilica" may instead record Pope Liberius converting a palace of the Sicinini family. Structural impact: the site is already in Christian use before the present basilica. What you see today: the reason the building sits where it does rather than on open ground.
432–440 — Pope Sixtus III replaces that structure with the present basilica, dedicated to Mary. Structural impact: the nave, its colonnade and its proportions are set, and the mosaic programme is laid. What you see today: the nave you walk down, and the mosaics above it.
14th century — the campanile is built. Structural impact: a bell tower of about 75 metres, the tallest in Rome. What you see today: the brick tower rising behind Fuga's façade.
1295 — Jacopo Torriti signs the apse mosaic of the Coronation of the Virgin. Structural impact: the apse is redecorated eight and a half centuries after the nave. What you see today: the mosaic that closes the view east.
16th century — the coffered ceiling is installed to a design by Giuliano da Sangallo, gilded with gold said to have been brought by Christopher Columbus and presented by Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish pope Alexander VI. Structural impact: the open roof of the early basilica is closed. What you see today: the gold ceiling over the nave.
1575–1630 — a broad renovation remakes every altar in the basilica, and Domenico Fontana builds the Sistine Chapel for Sixtus V in the right transept. Structural impact: the side chapels take the form they now have. What you see today: the tombs of Sixtus V and Pius V, and Bernini's family tomb just outside that chapel.
1740s — Benedict XIV commissions Ferdinando Fuga to build the present façade and modify the interior; Fuga pares the forty ancient nave columns to a uniform size and caps them with identical gilt-bronze capitals. Structural impact: the exterior a visitor meets is eighteenth-century, wrapped around a fifth-century church. What you see today: the façade, the Loggia of the Blessings, and a colonnade made regular by an architect.
1966 — archaeologists excavating beneath the basilica find the remains of a Roman building, including an imperial calendar with fasti and agricultural notes and illustrations, dated to about 200 or to the fourth century depending on the scholar. Structural impact: the pre-Christian occupation of the site is documented. What you see today: the Archaeological Area beneath the church, visitable by arrangement.
11 December 2024 — three new museum rooms are inaugurated ahead of the 2025 Holy Year, on the first floor of the Canons' Palace. Structural impact: the Liberian Museum gains a purpose-built core. What you see today: Arnolfo di Cambio's 1291 nativity group in a case you can walk around.
2025 — Pope Francis is buried in the basilica, in the side nave between the Sforza Chapel and the Pauline Chapel. Structural impact: none to the fabric. What you see today: the tomb, and a steady stream of visitors who have come for it.

Verified against Wikipedia, September 2026.

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Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Wikipedia — The basilica is sometimes called Our Lady of the Snows after a legend that around 352, during the pontificate of Liberius, a Roman patrician John and his childless wife vowed their possessions to the Virgin Mary, and that on 5 August, at the height of the Roman summer, snow fell during the night on the summit of the Esquiline Hill, whereupon they built a basilica on the spot the snow had covered; the legend is first reported only after AD 1000, The name Liberian Basilica may be independent of the legend since according to Pius Parsch Pope Liberius transformed a palace of the Sicinini family into a church, and that building was replaced under Pope Sixtus III (432-440) by the present structure dedicated to Mary, though some sources say the adaptation of a pre-existing building on the site was done in the 420s under Pope Celestine I, The forty columns supporting the nave are older than the church and come either from the first basilica or from another antique Roman building, thirty-six being marble and four granite, pared down or shortened to make them identical by Ferdinando Fuga who provided them with identical gilt-bronze capitals; the 14th-century campanile is the highest in Rome at about 75 metres; the 16th-century coffered ceiling to a design by Giuliano da Sangallo is said to be gilded with gold initially brought by Christopher Columbus and presented by Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish pope Alexander VI; and the apse mosaic, the Coronation of the Virgin, is from 1295 and signed by the Franciscan friar Jacopo Torriti, The basilica was restored, redecorated and extended by various popes including Eugene III (1145-1153), Nicholas IV (1288-1292), Clement X (1670-1676) and Benedict XIV (1740-1758), who in the 1740s commissioned Ferdinando Fuga to build the present facade and to modify the interior, and the interior underwent a broad renovation encompassing all of its altars between 1575 and 1630, The chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the right transept is named after Pope Sixtus V and is not to be confused with the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican named after Pope Sixtus IV; designed by Domenico Fontana, it contains the tombs of Sixtus V and of his early patron Pope Pius V, its main altar has four gilded bronze angels by Sebastiano Torregiani holding up a ciborium that is a model of the chapel itself, beneath that altar is the Oratory or Chapel of the Nativity where Ignatius of Loyola celebrated his first Mass as a priest on 25 December 1538, just outside the chapel is the tomb of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his family, and the Mannerist interior decoration was completed between 1587 and 1589 by a large team directed by Cesare Nebbia and Giovanni Guerra, In 1966 archaeologists excavating under the basilica found the remains of a Roman building including an imperial calendar with fasti and agricultural annotations and illustrations, dated on the basis of the calendar to about 200 by Salzman and to the 4th century by Magi, and in 2025 Pope Francis was buried at the basilica in the side nave between the Sforza Chapel and the Pauline Chapel (September 2026).
Checked against Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore — The Museum of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major preserves ecclesiastical furnishings, furniture, vestments, ornaments, paintings and prints linked to the liturgy, history and identity of the first Marian shrine in the West, and its three rooms were inaugurated on 11 December 2024 in view of the Holy Year 2025, The museum rooms are on the first floor in the heart of the Canons' Palace of Pope Paul V (1605-1621) and are reached by an itinerary through the Great Staircase of the Canons' Palace of Benedict XIV (1740-1758), up to the Loggia of the Blessings with the mosaic on the facade, and finally through the Chapter Hall (September 2026).

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore Historical Timeline

Chronology

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