Sacred Façades

Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome.

The Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven  is a titular basilica located on the highest summit of the Campidoglio.

It is still the designated Church of the city council of Rome, which uses the ancient title of Senatus Populusque Romanus.

Originally the church was named Santa Maria in Capitolio, since it was sited on the Capitoline Hill  of Ancient Rome, by the 14th century it had been renamed.

A medieval legend included claimed that the church was built over an Augustan Ara primogeniti Dei, in the place where the Tiburtine Sibyl prophesied to Augustus the coming of the Christ.

A later legend substituted an apparition of the Virgin Mary.