Lateran

Lateran and Laterano are the shared names of several architectural projects throughout Rome and Vatican City. The properties were once owned by the Lateranus family of the former Roman Empire. The Laterani lost their properties to Emperor Constantine who in turn gave it to the Roman Catholic Church.

The most famous Lateran buildings are the Lateran Palace, once called the Palace of the Popes, and Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, the Cathedral of Rome, which is extra-territorially a part of the Vatican city-state as a result of the 1929 Lateran treaties. As the official ecclesiastical seat of the Pope, St. John Lateran holds the Papal Cathedra in its apse. The Lateran is Christendom's earliest basilica, and is located on one of the 7 hills of Rome, the Caelian.

The inscription at the base of the columns on either side of the central entrance door reads: SACROS LATERAN ECCLES OMNIUM URBIS ET ORBIS ECCLESIARUM MATER ET CAPUT. It translates to "Sacred Lateran Church Mother and Head of All Churches of the City and the World".

The doors to the orginal Roman Curia are the main entrance doors to the Basilica de San Giovanni in Laterano. These doors are very inpressive bronze doors, decorated with acorns. Most of the orginal Chruches in rome contain Roman artifacts. Some of the churches also are built over orginal chruches. These churches perserve many of the vesitges of the old roman empire.

Constantine "The Great" gave San Giovanni to the Pope. Attached to the Lateran is a baptistry, one of the oldest in Christiandom. The baptistry contains the story of Constantine's victory at the Milvan Bridge in 312 AD.