Revival and Reality: The Carolingian Renaissance in Rome and the basilica of S. Prassede

Abstract

The monumental architecture of the early middle ages in Rome has long been explained as a revival of ancient architecture, specifically Constantinian basilicas, a theory first advanced by Richard Krautheimer in two seminal articles in 1942. This article seeks to explore other ways in which early medieval buildings were significant, taking as its focus the basilica of S. Prassede, built by Paschal I (817-24). Paschal’s church incorporated a very significant collection of martyrs’ relics, translated from the catacombs outside the city into the urban church. Paschal’s church was a saints’ shrine, a mausoleum for his mother, and a locus of a new kind of papal authority. These aspects of the significance of the building were generated more in function than in form.