Today I go back to talk about a wonderful church in Rome that I have already dealt with in the past, due to one of its interesting peculiarities (as you can read here). I'm talking about the Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere which, in reality, owes its fame to its extraordinary underground area that never ceases to amaze. Visiting the subsoil of the church, you can better conceive the concept of stratification and reuse, cornerstones of the historical evolution of Rome. Follow me,  as you would on a real tour, into the depths of the Eternal City.

Thanks to these photos of the basement of the Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere, the incredible history of Rome is once again perceived. We are below a basilica, built in the 11th century, which for years was erroneously considered to have been built above the Carcer Tullianum (where, according to tradition, Saint Peter and Saint Paul were imprisoned for months), which is actually located on the slopes of the Capitoline Hill. An historical error which, however, gave way to the construction of this basilica, which was built by exploiting in particular the ancient walls, foundations and columns of a pre-existing temple dedicated to Juno Sospita. In short, from temple to church, of which we can still clearly see the stratigraphic transition today and of which we have numerous other examples in Rome, such as the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina in the Roman Forum. Walking through these underground galleries, seeing the bones of the burials that for centuries were opened under the floor of the basilica, complete with hatches (now walled up) on the ceiling, is really exciting. Seeing the podium walls of the ancient temple of Juno (built in the early 2nd century BC), as well as walking on the ancient floor, or seeing the niches that housed, along the perimeter of the podium on which the temple rested, ancient shops let really ecstatic. Entering the small room of the so-called Tricora Chapel, opened in the 7th century and so called because of its three apses, is priceless. A chapel that was opened inside the podium of another Roman temple, adjacent to that of Juno, a sacred building dedicated to the Goddess Spes (Hope), erected in the 3rd century BC of which some traces are clearly visible. But it doesn't end there, because in these basements, going to the other side, you will find the remains of another temple which completes the sacred complex of the Republican age on which the Christian basilica originates. I'm talking about the Temple of Janus, also from the 3rd century BC, an autochthonous Roman deity who is the protector of entrances, doors and changes. Three ancient temples, partly exploited to build a Christian basilica at low cost in the middle of the Middle Ages .

This is why the Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere is striking. Its interior, decorated with Renaissance frescoes and more, tells us about the Christian history of the site, and its evolution as a place of Catholic worship. But its basements, the ancient stones on which it rests, the underground passages, instead tell us a thousand-year-old story that has no equal in the world. Here, where in the past there were three temples, since the VII - VI century BC life flowed frenetically to the rhythm of the innumerable boats which, here in the area, unloaded their goods and foodstuffs to be sold at the nearby Forum Boarium and Olitorio, the first two markets of ancient Rome. Ancient temples dedicated to propitiatory deities of trade and more. An area later conquered by a church which, on its external side walls, still shows the clear remains of the buildings of the past. This is Rome.