Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls: tickets, opening hours and tips

The Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls is one of Rome's four papal basilicas and the second largest after St. Peter's. It stands along Via Ostiense, about two kilometers outside the Aurelian Walls, where tradition places the tomb of the apostle Paul.

The building is grandiose: 131 meters long, 65 wide and almost 30 high, with five aisles divided by four rows of twenty granite columns. The quadriporticus in front, completed in 1928, has a facade with 19th-century mosaics of prophets and the Lamb, and in the center a statue of St. Paul.

Along the central nave run the 267 mosaic roundels of the popes, from St. Peter onward: the faces are imaginary, and only those from the 1500s on have realistic features. Above them, thirty-six frescoes tell the life of St. Paul.

The ciborium of Arnolfo di Cambio, from 1285, is a Gothic marble canopy that survived the fire, with statues of Paul, Peter, Benedict and Timothy. Nearby is the Paschal candlestick, from 1170, with scenes from the life of Jesus.

In front of the altar, an opening in the floor shows the tomb of the apostle: the marble sarcophagus and, beside it, the small apse of the Constantinian basilica, facing the opposite way.

The triumphal arch bears the mosaics from the time of Leo I, commissioned by Galla Placidia: Christ Pantocrator, the symbols of the Evangelists and the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse. Farther down, in the transept, two twin altars are of malachite, a gift from Tsar Nicholas I.

The Byzantine door, from the 11th century, has 54 panels with scenes of Jesus and the apostles. It was cast in Constantinople and served as the main entrance until 1967. The Vassalletto cloister, with its paired little columns, is a corner of quiet.

Constantine built a small basilica here, consecrated in 324. Between 391 and 395 three emperors wanted an enormous one, with five aisles, which lasted for fourteen centuries.

On the night of July 15, 1823, a fire, started by the carelessness of a workman who had left lit the fire he used to mend the gutters, destroyed it almost completely. They did not tell Pope Pius VII, who was dying. Work began in 1826 and Pius IX consecrated it in 1854.

The Christian world answered the appeal of Leo XII: Tsar Nicholas I sent the malachite, the viceroy of Egypt the alabaster columns. The windows are closed with very thin alabaster slabs, a gift from King Fuad I of Egypt after a blast in 1891 broke the colored glass.

Don't miss
• The papal roundels.
• The ciborium of Arnolfo di Cambio.
• The tomb of the apostle.
• The triumphal arch.
• The Byzantine door.

Did you know?
• According to a legend, Christ will return to earth when there is no more room for the portrait of a new pope.
• Under the floor there are over 5,000 burials, and more than 1,700 slabs with inscriptions have emerged.
• The complex enjoys extraterritoriality, as property of the Holy See.