Why so many churches in Rome?

Have you ever wondered why there are so many churches in Rome?
Rome is the world capital of churches, with over 900 all over the city. Historians, teachers and archaeologists tried to count them but, until now, no one was able to certify the official number.

How and when did it start?

The reasons for such a great number of churches and chapels dates back 2000 years ago, during the Roman Empire.
The religion in ancient Rome was polytheistic. Between I and II century A.D. the Roman Empire was covering 3 continents (Europe, Asia, Africa – about 50 modern countries) with a population of 60 million people. After each war, Rome “imported” gods from the populations conquered so they could be free to pray the god/gods they preferred.

This didn’t happen with the Christianity, which was actually considered “illegal and outlaw”. In fact, Christians believed all men are equal, so you can imagine how this religion can be extremely dangerous for an empire based on different status.
Despite this, Christian religion arrived in the city Rome, a multiethnic city with one million inhabitants, with St. Peter, St. Paul and other disciples.

The turning point

For all that time, Christians could pray or be buried in secret places like Catacombs.
Then, in 313 A.D., Constantine proclaimed all men free to pray whoever they wanted, even Christians. A long period of persecutions finally arrived at the end.
In 380 A.D., the emperor Theodosius announced the Christian religion as official religion of the Roman Empire.
With the end of Pagan religion, Christians turned many pagan temples into churches.

Nowadays

If you count also small chapels inside private buildings, palaces and convents, the total number reaches 1.600 churches. The tradition for pilgrims is to visit the “Seven Pilgrimage Churches of Rome”: St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John the Lateran, St. Mary Major, St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem and St. Sebastian Outside the Walls.

In case you are planning to visit them spending maximum one hour in each church of Rome, you will need 67 days.

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