Chapter Considerazioni sui più antichi monumenti cristiani di Albano (Roma): basilica costantiniana e catacomba di S. Senatore

Abstract

Recent geophysical research and an analysis of the architectural structures actually recognisable in the current cathedral church of Albano Laziale (Rome), dedicated to S. Pancrazio, allow us to confirm the hypothesis, already advanced at the end of the 19th century, that the basilica is nothing other than the ancient church built by the emperor Constantine in the city of Appia, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, as we know from the Liber Pontificalis. Dimensions of the church are also significant in this sense, completely mirroring those of the Constantinian basilica discovered a few years ago in Ostia. The basilica of S. Pancrazio was restored in the early Middle Ages by Pope Leo III. As often happens, due to the baptismal role played by the episcopal church, after the first dedication to the Baptist, it was necessary over time to add (and replace) that to S. Pancrazio, as also happened in other cases of ancient Constantinian churches (S. Restituta a Naples, S. Stefano a Capua).