Discover Santa Maria Maggiore Church

We will take you on a tour of one of Rome's most beautiful basilicas, one of Rome's four papal basilicas, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which stands on the summit of the Esquiline Hill and is the only one to have preserved its primitive early Christian structure, albeit enriched by later additions. Legend has it that the wealthy Roman patrician John and his wife, having no children, decided to dedicate a church to the Virgin Mary, who appeared to them in a dream one night in August 352 AD. In the dream, Our Lady informed them that a miracle would show them the site on which to build the church. Pope Liberius also had the same dream and, on the following day, he went to the Esquiline and found it covered with snow. The pope himself drew the perimeter of the building, and the church was built at the expense of the couple. Even today, every year on August 5, the miracle of the snow is re-enacted with a special celebration, during which white petals are released from the top of the basilica, producing a truly evocative effect that should not be missed.