2-888-590 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Santa Maria Maggiore - Rome, 1850. 'The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is situated on a commanding site, at the extreme east of the inhabited parts of the city...and has cathedral jurisdiction, a chapter and canons, &c. It is called St. Mary the Greater, from its being the largest of ail the numerous churches in Rome dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. In the open area in front of its principal or south-eastern facade, a magnificent ancient Corinthian column of white marble, surmounted by a group in bronze of the Virgin and Child, is raised upon a pedestal, which also serves as a fountain. This column, the fluted shaft of which is nearly fifty feet high, belonged to what is now known to have been the Basilica of Constantine, in the Campo Vaccino...The piazza in front of the north-western facade is decorated with the Egyptian obelisk..From "Illustrated London News", 1850.