You are along the route: 1000 RELIGIONS IN ROME. FROM THE ANCIENT TIMES UNTIL TODAY
The Mithraeum
Via di S. Giovanni in Laterano, 108
www.basilicasanclemente.com
Every day. Monday-Saturday 9:00-12:30 and 15:00-18:00. Sunday and bank holidays 12:00-18:00 December 24th and 31st: 9:30-14:00. Admission fee.
Underneath the Church of San Clemente some Roman buildings are present and also a Mithraeum. This latter one was created at the end of the II century A.D. inside the semi-underground rooms of an aristocratic house (domus) of the I century A.D. The worshipping room is a fake grotto, decorated with plasters and mosaics that are illuminated by open skylights inside the vault. This is an evident reminder to the cave in which the god was born according to the legend. The sanctuary had three main rooms: the worshipping rooms, the school, where the adepts learned the principles of the religion and the antechamber. The benches inside the worshipping room and the pictures and frescos of which some traces are preserved are the only evidences of the Mithraeum that was used until the pagan cults were definitively banned in the IV century A.D.
Foto ©Basilica di San Clemente
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