Milan has been an important Christian center since the beginning of Christianity. so there were two church just in front of the Duomo entrance, but underground after more than 17 centuries.
In Roman times, the city of Mediolanum was ten feet below today's level. (Question for my more science-minded friends -- since a lot of this stuff is layered underground, is the earth getting larger? I've wondered about that.)
The most important finding from the original churches is called the Paleo-Christian Baptistery of San Giovanni. Before you freak out, Paleo-Christian refers to the early church prior to First Council of Nicea in 325.
Anyhow, apparently the Baptistery was shared between the two churches. People could not enter church until you were baptized at age 18 (or later). It turns out this baptistery was where St. Ambrose was baptized. He later baptized 31 year-old Augustine of Hippo, who was to become an influential Christian philosopher and writer.
There are also artifacts in glass cases, many of which date from AD 313, which is a long time ago.
The whole section doesn't take long to tour, and is definitely of interest. We enjoyed Veronica filling us in -- just walking around on our own, we wouldn't have gotten nearly as much from it.
The best preserved mosaic.
The historic Baptistery.
Interesting pottery -- not sure when it is from.
The famed Milan snake
suggests to me that this
pottery is not nearly as old
as the ancient churches.
No comments:
Post a Comment