DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0142
118
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. HL.
Baptistery, formerly destined for the instruction
and accommodation of the catechumens. In this
chapel only, and only upon the eves of Easter
and Pentecost, was public baptism administered
anciently in Rome; many magnificent ceremo-
nies which occupied the whole night accompa-
nied this solemnity, and rendered it more delight-
ful to the fervent Christians of that period than the
most brilliant exhibitions of the day.
The view from the steps of the principal por-
tico of St. John Lateran is extensive and interest-
ing. It presents a grove before ; on one side the
venerable walls of the city : the lofty arches of an
aqueduct on the other; the church of Santa Croce
in front, and beyond it the desolate Campagna
bounded by the Alban Mount, tinged with blue
and purple, and checkered with woods, towns
and villages.
A wide and straight road leads through the soli-
tary grove which I have just mentioned, to the
Basilica di Santa Croce in Gierusalemme, an-
other patriarchal church erected by Constantine on
the ruins of a temple of Venus destroyed by his
orders. This church derives its name from some
pieces of the holy cross, and from a quantity of
earth taken from Mount Calvary and deposited
in it by St. Helena, Constantine’s mother. It
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. HL.
Baptistery, formerly destined for the instruction
and accommodation of the catechumens. In this
chapel only, and only upon the eves of Easter
and Pentecost, was public baptism administered
anciently in Rome; many magnificent ceremo-
nies which occupied the whole night accompa-
nied this solemnity, and rendered it more delight-
ful to the fervent Christians of that period than the
most brilliant exhibitions of the day.
The view from the steps of the principal por-
tico of St. John Lateran is extensive and interest-
ing. It presents a grove before ; on one side the
venerable walls of the city : the lofty arches of an
aqueduct on the other; the church of Santa Croce
in front, and beyond it the desolate Campagna
bounded by the Alban Mount, tinged with blue
and purple, and checkered with woods, towns
and villages.
A wide and straight road leads through the soli-
tary grove which I have just mentioned, to the
Basilica di Santa Croce in Gierusalemme, an-
other patriarchal church erected by Constantine on
the ruins of a temple of Venus destroyed by his
orders. This church derives its name from some
pieces of the holy cross, and from a quantity of
earth taken from Mount Calvary and deposited
in it by St. Helena, Constantine’s mother. It