Façade, Santa Maria Maggiore - Rome, Italy
Posted by: 
hykesj
N 41° 53.828 E 012° 29.938
33T E 292529 N 4641379
Vatican postage stamp issued for the Holy Year of 2000, and featuring the eighteenth-century façade of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
Waymark Code: WM18AJZ
Location: Lazio, Italy
Date Posted: 06/28/2023
Views: 0
The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the four Patriarchal Basilicas of Rome. The building dates from the 5th century and like most of these highly ornate churches, has been a work in progress for hundreds of years. One of the last major renovations was the addition of this façade designed by noted Florentine architect Ferdinand Fuga in the middle of the eighteenth century. Work on the façade began in 1741 and was completed in time for the Holy Year of 1750.
The facade consists of a three-arched loggia supported by a portico of five arcades. The loggia cleverly allows the colorful thirteenth-century mosaics of the original façade to show through. Statues of former popes and other historical Vatican figures surround the perimeter of the façade which is topped by a Madonna and child.
The stamp, issued for the Holy Year of 2000, was part of a set of four. Each stamp in the set showed the front façade of the four Patriarchal Basilicas of Rome: St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Maggiore. In addition to the façade of St. Mary’s, this particular stamp shows a detail of the late thirteenth-century mosaic by Jacopo Torriti which is called Coronation of the Virgin and is located in the Apse.
Stamp Issuing Country: Vatican City
Date of Issue: 4-Feb-2000
Denomination: 1200 l
Color: multicolored
Stamp Type: Single Stamp
Relevant Web Site: Not listed
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