This fifth-century church looks the way churches looked before Rome went : white, light-filled, with twenty-four ancient columns and almost no decoration.
Santa Sabina was built around 425 on the house of a Roman woman, and the columns come from a temple that once stood here. From outside what catches the eye most is the brick flank, with a row of tall windows above it that hold no glass but alabaster.
To the right of the portico there's a hole in the wall with a black stone inside it, which the story says the devil threw at , the Spanish priest who founded the .
The reason to go in is hanging in the portico itself: a cypress wood door from the time the church was built, with panels carved with one of the oldest crucifixion scenes in existence.
The church is free and closes for a couple of hours around midday. Inside, the second story of this stop is waiting for you, about that door and about the light falling through alabaster.
Sources. Story: Basilica di Santa Sabina, Ordine dei Predicatori; Treccani (porta lignea di Santa Sabina) Photos: Photo: Sailko (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)
