page_title: Santa Maria in Trastevere
section_title: Exterior
hierarchical_section_title: Santa Maria in Trastevere / Exterior
caption_attribution_description: English: 12th-century mosiac on the exterior of the Basilica di Santa Maria In Trastevere. Taken on 7/8/2006 by --Bjsamelsonjones 23:55, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
context_page_description: The Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere; English: Our Lady in Trastevere is a titular minor basilica in the Trastevere district of Rome, and one of the oldest churches of Rome. The basic floor plan and wall structure of the church date back to the 340s, and much of the structure to 1140-43. The first sanctuary was built in 221 and 227 by Pope Callixtus I and later completed by Pope Julius I. The church has large areas of important mosaics from the late 13th century by Pietro Cavallini.
context_section_description: The Romanesque campanile is from the 12th century. Near the top, a niche protects a mosaic of the Madonna and Child. The mosaics on the façade are believed to be from the 12th century. They depict the Madonna enthroned and suckling the Child, flanked by 10 women holding lamps. This image on the façade showing Mary nursing Jesus is an early example of a popular late-medieval and renaissance type of image of the Virgin. The motif itself originated much earlier, with significant seventh-century Coptic examples at Wadi Natrun in Egypt. 
  
  The façade of the church was restored in 1702 by Carlo Fontana, who replaced the ancient porch with a sloping tiled roof — seen in Falda's view above — with the present classicizing one. The octagonal fountain in the piazza in front of the church (Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere), which already appears in a map of 1472, was restored by Carlo Fontana.
caption: 12th-century mosaic of the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus flanked by 10 women holding lamps
exif: {}