Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin

The Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin features a distinct, four-story bell tower built with intricate brickwork and decorative marble inserts. It stands at the edge of the old cattle market, built directly over the foundations of a second-century Roman grain hall. In the eighth century, Pope Hadrian the First gave this church to Greek monks fleeing iconoclastic persecution in the Byzantine Empire. They decorated the walls with vivid mosaics and created a center for their community that persists to this day.