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Santa Costanza is a 4th-century church in Rome, Italy, on the Via Nomentana, which runs north-east out of the city. According to the traditional view, it was built under Constantine I as a mausoleum for his daughter Constantina (also known as Constantia or Costanza) who died in 354 AD.〔John Lowden, ''Early Christian & Byzantine Art'' (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1997), 41.〕 His other daughter Helena, wife of Julian, who died in 360 AD, was also buried here. In the Middle Ages it was dedicated as a church to Santa Costanza (Saint Constance), who was regarded as a saint.〔Johannes G. Deckers, "Constantine the Great and Early Christian Art" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 95-96.〕 It was built next to, and in connection with, the 4th century Basilica of Santa Agnese (Saint Agnes). Both buildings were constructed over the earlier catacombs in which Saint Agnes is believed to be buried. The mausoleum is of circular form with an ambulatory surrounding a central dome. The fabric of Santa Costanza survives in essentially its original form. Despite the loss of the coloured stone veneers of the walls, some damage to the mosaics and incorrect restoration, the building stands in excellent condition as a prime example of Early Christian art and architecture. The vaults of the apses and ambulatory display well preserved examples of Late Roman mosaics. A key component which is missing from the decorative scheme is the mosaic of the central dome. In the sixteenth-century, watercolours were made of this central dome so the pictorial scheme can be hypothetically reconstructed.〔John Lowden, ''Early Christian & Byzantine Art'' (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1997), 43.〕 The large porphyry sarcophagus of Constantina, has survived intact, and is now in the Vatican Museum. an object of great significance to the study of the art of Late Antiquity.〔 Recent excavations suggest that this was in fact the second Christian building on the site, and may be some decades later than traditionally thought, and built as a mausoleum for Constantina's sister Helena in the reign of her husband Julian the Apostate. The larger of the two porphyry sarcophagi there would belong to Helena, and the smaller to Constantina, the opposite of what has been traditionally thought. The earlier triconch apsed building of the 330s was probably indeed built for Constantina, but she later had to take second place to her sister; as Constantina's fame as a saintly figure continued in the Middle Ages their roles became reversed in the popular mind. ==History== ===Location=== Santa Costanza is located a minute's walk to the side of the Via Nomentana, a short way outside the ancient walls of Rome. The road follows the ancient Roman route which runs north-east from Rome to Nomentum or Mentana. The area was an Imperial family estate, and the bodies of the sisters were both brought considerable distances to be buried there: Ammianus records that Constantina's body was brought back from Bithynia, and Helena's from Gaul (''History'' XIV: 11, 6).〔Webb, 250-251〕 The mausoleum was built over the catacombs that contained the relics of Saint Agnes, who was martyred as a thirteen-year-old, and which was attached to the ancient basilica of Saint Agnese mid-way along the liturgical north side.〔 The basilica was originally a "funerary hall" rather than a church in the modern sense. Later legend considerably elaborated Constantina's devotion to Saint Agnes, but it now cannot be determined if this was a factor in the choice of location, although in general terms early Christians believed that their souls benefited from being buried close to martyrs, which was almost certainly a major attraction of the funerary hall to those who paid to be buried in it. Attaching an important mausoleum as an annex to a church was a common practice in Rome and can be seen the cases of other Roman churches such as the Mausoleum of Helena (Constantine's mother, not his daughter), which was attached to the basilica of Santi Marcellino e Pietro ad Duas Lauros, now a ruin.〔Richard Krautheimer, ''Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture'' (New York: Penguin Books, 1979), 66.〕 Of the original Basilica of St Agnese, only about a third of the main outer wall survives, from the north side and the apse at the eastern end, but at less than the original height. By the 7th-century the basilica had fallen into ruins and was too large to be refurbished, and the current much smaller Basilica of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura was built to replace it, a few metres away. ===Purpose=== It was traditionally thought that construction began during the reign of Emperor Constantine I or shortly after, as an early history, the ''Liber Pontificalis'', records that Pope Silvester I (d. 335) baptized Constantina and her paternal aunt in a baptistry built by Constantine there at the same time as the funerary hall. This was assumed to be the structure that survives. But excavations in 1992 discovered an earlier building beneath, and the existing building is now dated to it around 350 AD, in the reign of Helena's husband, the Emperor Julian. Constantina had died in 354, and her sarcophagus was perhaps originally placed in the earlier building.〔Webb, 249; for a superimposed plan of the two buildings see :File:Santakonstanza mausoleo oinplano.jpg〕 The structure of Santa Costanza reflects its original function as the mausoleum of one or both Constantine's two daughters, Constantia and Helena, rather than as the church it became much later. The centralized design put "direct physical emphasis on the person or place to be honored"〔Michael Gough, ''The Origins of Christian Art'' (New York: Praeger Publishers, Inc., 1973), 58.〕 and was popular for mausoleums and places of baptisms at this time. Other early Christian buildings with a similar origin and a circular plan include Split Cathedral, built within Diocletian's Palace as his mausoleum, and the Rotunda of Galerius (now the Church of St. George]] in Thessaloniki built as a mausoleum for Galerius.〔 The huge funerary hall or Constantinian basilica gradually fell out of use and into ruins, with the base of the wall now surviving for about a third of the original circuit of exterior walls, but Santa Costanza has survived all but intact. It is documented that Pope Nicholas I celebrated mass there in 865, the first time that "Santa Costanza" is recorded as its name, but its consecration as a church was not until 1254, by Pope Alexander IV, who had what were believed to be the remains of Constantia removed from the larger sarcophagus and placed under a central altar.〔Webb, 251〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Santa Costanza」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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