Today I would like to talk about the extraordinary underground area located below the Church of Santa Maria in Via Lata, along Via del Corso. specifically of the decorative apparatus discovered during the archaeological excavations and the religious tradition of the place, while today I would like to focus on the historical and topographical evolution of the area, useful to understand how, at times, it is difficult in Rome to establish what there was thousands of years ago.

Today, in fact, under the church it is possible to visit six small rooms, arranged in two rows of three, plus a seventh room a little larger than the others. These rooms were created in the course of the IV century by a porticoed area that had four rows of columns that formed three naves (as seen in the photo), with the central one wider than the two lateral ones. What was the function of this arcaded area? We still don't know today... Perhaps there were tabernae, perhaps a structure with a roof that was useful for sheltering from the rain, for concluding business or whatever. It is even probable that the two short sides were closed by a wall that closed the arches of the pillars. Then, in the fourth century, some rooms were obtained from this large portico. What were they for? It is not known ... It was thought of horrea, that is of warehouses, but the probable presence of a mezzanine (therefore of a mezzanine floor), suggests that the rooms were small shops with, above, the owners' houses.

Only in the 8th century a.D.. the documents begin to speak of a true and proper diakonia. These rooms would officially become a place for Christian worship under Pope Sergio I, and some frescoes testify to this. The long history continues with the construction of a real church in the 11th century, a complete makeover under the pontificate of Alexander VI Borgia at the end of the 9400 (badly done for too much haste), to then arrive at the current church seventeenth-century located above the underground area. A place that would have to do with Saint Luke, Saint Paul, Saint Peter... (you will find out the rest next time)