The Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore,…
1614 CE
The Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore, (English: Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major; Latin: Basilica Sanctae Mariae Majoris ad Nives), an ancient Roman Catholic Marian basilica of Rome,is one of the four major or four papal basilicas that, together with St. Lawrence outside the Walls, are referred to as the five "patriarchal basilicas" of Rome, associated with the five ancient patriarchal sees of Christendom.
The other three papal or major basilicas are St. John Lateran, St. Peter and St. Paul outside the Walls.
The Liberian Basilica (another title for the church) is one of the tituli, presided over by a patron—in this case Pope Liberius—that housed the major congregations of early Christians in Rome.
Probably first built in the early fifth century, Santa Maria Maggiore is the only Roman basilica that retains the core of its original structure, left intact despite several additional construction projects and damage from the earthquake of 1348.
The Marian column erected in 1614, to designs of Carlo Maderno, is the model for numerous Marian columns erected subsequently in Catholic countries in thanksgiving for remission of the plague during the Baroque era.
(An example is the Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc, the Czech Republic).
The column itself is the sole remaining from Constantine's Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in Campo Vaccino, as the Roman Forum will be called until the eighteenth century; Maderno's fountain at the base combines the armorial eagles and dragons of Paul V, the reigning pope.