San Pancrazio

The basilica of San Pancrazio (English: St Pancras; Latin: S. Pancratii) is a Catholic minor basilica and titular, conventual, and parish church founded by Pope Symmachus in the 6th century in Rome, Italy.

Due to their neglect of the site, Pope Gregory I (590–604) handed it over to the members of the newly founded Benedictine Order after the Lombards sacked their monastery of Montecassino in 580.

[1] In the seventh century Pope Honorius I (625–638) built a larger church for the increasing numbers of pilgrims; he placed the relics of the saint beneath the high altar, with a window of access from a semi-circular corridor that led behind and below the altar.

The church underwent further rebuilding in the 19th century, having been heavily damaged during the French attack on the incipient Roman Republic in 1849; but it retains its plain brick facade of the late 15th century, with the arms of Pope Innocent VIII.

Entrance is next to the small Museo di S. Pancrazio with fragments of sculpture and pagan and early Christian inscriptions.

Entrance avenue through the forecourt