Rome - Santa Prassede

Must-see attractions nearby: Colosseum Pantheon Trevi Fountain Vatican City Roman Forum Palatine Hill National Museum / Baths Museum

On the triumphal arch is a representation of the heavenly Jerusalem; in the apse is the apocalyptic Lamb of the Revelation, and in the conch of the apse, above a frieze of lambs, SS. Peter and Paul leading Praxedes and Pudentiana, accompanied by Pope Paschal as the donor and by St Zeno. In addition to glorifying the saints the representations had a didactic purpose: the object, as in other religious painting, was to instruct the worshippers, who in the Middle Ages were mostly illiterate, in the doctrines of the faith. The Chapel of St Zeno (in the south aisle), built by Pope Paschal I to house the tomb of his mother Theodora, is like a medieval picturebook, every part of the walls and vaulting being covered with mosaics depicting saints and Biblical symbols.