Basilica of San Sisto Vecchio

The Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio was founded by Pope Simplicius between 468 and 483 and is dedicated to Saint Stephen, a martyr whose body had been found a few decades earlier in the Holy Land and transported to Rome. The church was embellished by Popes John I and Felix IV in the 6th century. In 1130, Innocent II added three transverse arches to support the dome. In 1454, Pope Nicholas V entrusted the ruined church to the care of the Hungarian Pauline Fathers. The church was restored by Bernardo Rossellino. In 1579, the Hungarian Jesuits took over from the Pauline Fathers.

A first church was built here in antiquity, mentioned in the acts of the synod of Pope Simmaco in 499. Pope Paschal I (817-824) had the basilica rebuilt in 818-822, endowing it with mosaics. The appearance of the present church of Santa Maria in Domnica, however, owes much to a reconstruction in the 16th century, when the church was closely linked to the Medici family.

The church of San Giovanni a Porta Latina dates back to the 5th or late 4th century, certainly rebuilt in 720 and restored in 1191, with the addition of a new beautiful bell tower with six orders of triple lancet windows and a new cycle of frescoes. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, the church was enriched with a new fresco of the apse made by the Cavalier d'Arpino (1568-1640).