ARCHITECT, Italian
(active 350s in Rome)

Interior view

354-60
Photo
Santa Costanza, Rome

Santa Costanza is a 4th-century church in Rome on the Via Nomentana. It is a round building with well preserved original layout and mosaics. It was constructed over the earlier catacombs in which Saint Agnes is believed to be buried.

According to the traditional view, Santa Costanza was built under Constantine I as a mausoleum for his daughter Constantina, later also known as Costanza, who died in AD 354. However, now it is dated to the time of Emperor Julian (r. 361-363), who would have built it as a funerary structure for his wife, Helena, who died in AD 360, and was herself also a daughter of Emperor Constantine.

The mausoleum survives in its original form with an ambulatory surrounding a central dome. The mosaics decorating the vault of the ambulatory and the apses of the chapels off the ambulatory are important examples of Early Christian art. The mosaic decoration in the dome no longer survives.

View the ground plan of the building.