[1][2][3] Built in the middle of the 5th century on the north-western slope of the Palatine Hill, Santa Maria Antiqua is the earliest and most significant Christian monument within the Roman Forum.

Therefore, Santa Maria Antiqua represents a key element for the understanding of the cultural and urban development of the Roman Forum from Antiquity into the first centuries of the Christian period.

Following a conservation program carried out by the Soprintendenza per il Patrimonio Storico in partnership with World Monuments Fund, the church is now open for tours.

Santa Maria Antiqua is a ruined church in the Roman Forum, and is part of the Foro Romano e Palatino archaeological site which requires a ticket purchase in order to get access inside.

Thanks to centuries of sealing off, its walls showcase a cycle of beautiful colourful frescoes depicting the Virgin Mary and Infant Jesus, popes, saints, and martyrs, thus forming one of the largest and most important collections of pre-iconoclastic Roman and Byzantine art in the world.

The church was assigned in 1550 by Pope Julius III to the Oblates of St Frances of Rome from the nearby Monastery of Tor de' Specchi.

The heavily layered walls of Santa Maria Antiqua host numerous frescoes of varying artistic style and adaption during its time of intense decoration from the sixth to the ninth century.

[9] Each alcove, wall and altar can be attributed to different times and trends of style representative of its artists and patrons, including the Popes Martin I (649-653), John VII (705-707), Zachary (741-752) and Paul I (757-767).

[12] Artists from the Greek community surrounding the church had local influence, but there was also a Byzantine administration operating atop the Palatine Hill, at the base of which is Santa Maria Antiqua.

[16] The first two layers from the fourth to sixth century are of Ancient Roman Pagan mosaics, which quickly were replaced by the earliest frescoes of Santa Maria Antiqua.

[27] The earliest Martin I decorations are the Church Fathers AD 649 who are expressing movement by having a leg lifted in the walking motion while their robes are draped and highlighted to exaggerate this effect.

[31] Martin I is depicted in Hellenistic fashion by white brush strokes shading his brown facial hair that is painted on a heavily contoured, emaciated jaw and he carries a jewelled book.

[34] John VII's ambitious projects can be partially blamed for the removal and destruction of existing frescoes as his artists often re-plastered the areas approximately 4.5 meters and up.

[35] The artists would drill holes into the walls 9.3 meters above the floor to hold their scaffolding then spread intonaco (plaster) to reinforce and secure layers below the current working surface.

[36] Although John VII's frescoes are adorned with breezy tunics, toned contours of flesh and animated expressions that individualized the saints, they are considered by archaeologists and historians to be strained in their movement.

[39] An example of this detail comes in the form of Saint Hermolaus of Macedon in the Chapel of Physicians who is pictured with high, strongly contoured cheekbones, asymmetrical eyes, arching eyebrows with highlighted long, dark hair and a flowing beard.

[44] Flanking Christ on the cross are angels, Saint John's head with halo and there is a crown of adoring followers dressed in different coloured robes at the foot of a cliff (believed to be Golgotha, from Matthew 27: 33).

[45] The coins were minted in Italy, and like the fresco, they depict Christ with short hair and a barely-there beard, following Byzantine fashion.

[45] The existence of the loincloth was established by close examination of the fresco, which revealed a heavily contoured or muscled abdomen that would not have been consistent with fabric patterns of a colobium.

[32] From the two different images of Christ in circulation at this time, from the west and from the east, it is possible to suggest that the Byzantine artist community living on Palatine Hill by Santa Maria Antiqua held influence in the painting of the Adoration of the Cross/Crucified.

[51] These icons are reproductions made for the easiest access to the Byzantine influenced practice of incubation (the notion that while sleeping in a church, one could see a saint or be cured of disease) that was popular in the early eighth century.

[50] The ease in accessibility of these medical saints of all different origins encouraged people to recover from illness in a Christian way, replacing any traces that Santa Maria Antiqua was associated with pagans but still continuing its reputation for being a place of healing.