St Stephen in the Round

Hidden behind an ancient wall, off a lesser-travelled side street of Rome, is the 5^th century Basilica of Santo Stefano in Rotondo, or “Saint Stephen in the Round”. The church gets its name “round”, unsurprisingly, from its shape! Unlike typical churches in The Eternal City, the altar rests at the center of this stunning sanctuary. Wooden beams cross the ceiling and colonnades support the perimeter of the central dome. As if the peculiar medieval architecture wasn’t enough…

…the 16^th century wall frescoes depict the brutal executions of 34 saints, apostles, and martyrs! Commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII, the gruesome, life-sized scenes that make up the “Martyrdom Cycle” are shocking but also informative. Each panel focuses on one martyr, depicting his or her execution, accompanied by an explanatory epigraph etched into marble “captions” below. The Italian and Latin inscriptions include the names of both the martyr and the executioner, along with an accompanying bible verse.

Upon his visit in the 19^th century, Charles Dickens wrote “Such a panorama of horror and butchery no man could imagine in his sleep… Grey-bearded men being boiled, fried, grilled, crimped, singed, eaten by wild beasts, worried by dogs, buried alive, torn asunder by horses, chopped up small with hatchets: women having their breasts torn with iron pinchers, their tongues cut out, their ears screwed off, their jaws broken, their bodies stretched upon the rack, or skinned upon the stake, or crackled up and melted in the fire: these are among the mildest subjects.”