There is one area of Rome which goes back to the beginning of Christianity and to the time when the religion became official around 343 AD. under the reign of Emperor Constantine, who would become the founder of Constantinople, today's Istanbul.
It is the area between the Lateran and the Piazza of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. When Emperor Constantine for political reasons after his defeat of his rival Maxentius at the battle of the Milvio Bridge in Rome established that only one religion would rule and that would be Christianity, he decided to built a church and a palace for the new head of the Christian religion on land belonging to the Laterani Family. Thus the Basilica of St-John Lateran and its Episcopal Palace are to this day the seat of the Bishop of Rome also known as the Pope. It is only much later around 1500 under Pope Paul V and for other political reasons that St-Peter's Basilica will become the second home of the Pope in Rome.
Constantine got his entire family into the Christian Project so to speak, his wife Fausta and his daughter Constance and his mother Elena who was an ambitious women. Rome was a city at the time of many religions from all over the world, given the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Capital of the Empire. Constantine who was Pontifex of the Imperial Cult, simply appointed himself Pope of the Christians and he named a bishop to head the religious affairs in Rome. This is something the Catholic Church always contested because it goes against their official story.
His mother Elena, (also known as Saint-Elena) decided that for the new religion could take root, you would need relics, the ancient religions in Rome had lots of relics to different gods from ancient times for veneration so this new Christian religion also needed relics for people to worship, it did not have any up to this date.
As mother of the Emperor she was a prominent and authoritarian figure, she took several Imperial ships with her and a large retinue to Jerusalem and cruised to Palestine, an systematically went on a shopping expedition. Now the City of Jerusalem she visited in 326 AD had little to do with the Jerusalem of the time of Jesus in 30 to 33 AD. In a Jewish revolt against the Romans 70 AD, the city and the Temple of Salomon had been totally destroyed by Titus the son of Emperor Vespasian and the city was rebuilt along Roman ideas of City planning. The Golgotha was now inside the city walls and all streets had been widened when not completely changed all together. But this did not stop her, she was a woman on a mission, first thing she did on arrival was to create, out of the blue, what Catholics know as the Stations of the Cross by walking in Jerusalem and marking various spots as a station. She also bought the staircase of the Roman Governor's Palace from the time of Pontius Pilate. It is said that this staircase was taken by Jesus when going to his trial.
The staircase (Santa Scala) is today inside the Lateran Palace in Rome, you can only climb it on your knees. She also found large pieces of the true wooden cross of Christ some 293 years after his crucifixion. The story goes that a little jewish man knew where the cross was but would not tell Elena unless she paid a certain price, she got mad at him and ordered he be put into a pit until he revealed where was the true cross. She found the crown of thorns and the inscription attached to the Cross INRI. She found the real nails and so on and the stone column to which Jesus was tied to when he was flogged. She brought all of it back to Rome and installed it all in a museum in her Palace just down the road from St-John Lateran on Piazza Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, where it remains to this day on display.
At the time her Palace was already old it had been built under Septimus Severus and known as the Sessorium with it's own amphitheater Castrensis. It is the only other amphitheater in Rome and it is less known than the famous amphitheater of the Flavian (Colosseum). Today the church occupies what was the atrium of the former palace and a monastery shares the palace area with the hotel, the amphitheater is a huge garden with an incredible array of fruits and flowers all maintained by the monks.
The Domus Sessoriana today is the hotel within the Palace and you can stay there if you wish. It is quite beautiful and well appointed and it gives its clients an exclusive entry to the amphitheater garden. The garden is otherwise closed to the public.
Few people even notice it when they walk by as it is part of the Aurelian city walls of Rome.
Rooms with breakfast are at 100 euros a day which is a bargain for Rome, very central, near all the major sites and in front of the subway station (San Giovanni). See www.booking.com for details.
The photos show the palace hotel and a view from one of the rooms looking at the Basilica of St-John Lateran in the distance.
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