St. Gereon's Basilica
St. Gereon's Basilica (''Basilika Sankt Gereon'') is a German Roman Catholic church in Cologne, dedicated to Saint Gereon, and designated a minor basilica on 25 June 1920. In the core of St. Gereon, significant remains of an oval central building with nine cones of ancient Roman architecture from the second half of the 4th century (between 350 and 365) have been preserved. This, the lower part of today's decagon, is one of the most important examples of ancient representative architecture north of the Alps and, alongside the somewhat older Trier Cathedral (core building around 340) and the Trier Aula Palatina of Constantine the Great (around 311), which has been used as a church since 1856, is one of the oldest still existing Sacred buildings in Germany. The first documented mention of a church dedicated to St. Gereon in this location dates back to 612, for which probably only the Roman building was used. Around 800 AD, Archbishop Hildebold had a rectangular choir added to th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization. O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and eparchies around the world, each overseen by one or more bishops. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the chief pastor of the church. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church founded by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission, that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles, and that the pope is the successor of Saint Peter, upo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium
Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium was the Roman colony in the Rhineland from which the city of Cologne, now in Germany, developed. It was usually called ''Colonia'' (colony) and was the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior and the headquarters of the military in the region. With administrative reforms under Diocletian it became the capital of Germania Secunda. During the second and mid-third centuries, around 20,000 people lived in the city. Many artefacts from the ancient city survive, including the arch of the former city gate with the inscription 'CCAA', which is today housed in the Romano-Germanic Museum. Historical background ''Oppidum Ubiorum'' (Latin city of Ubii), ''Ara Ubiorum'' and ''Apud Aram Ubiorum'' A Germanic tribe known as the Eburones had originally inhabited the present-day Cologne Lowland. But they were wiped out in a war of reprisal carried out by Julius Caesar. In 38 BC, the Germanic tribe known as the Ubii, who inhabited the right ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mausoleum Of Constantina
The Mausoleum of Constantina, also known as the ''Mausoleum of Santa Costanza'', was built in the 4th century AD for Constantina (also known as Constantia), the daughter of the emperor Constantine I. It later became a church. It is located in Rome on the Via Nomentana, within the monumental complex of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura. It is one of the best preserved buildings from Late Antiquity left in Rome and includes original ceiling mosaics. It was adjacent to the earlier ''basilica'', now in ruins, built by Constantine I from 338 as a funerary hall. It was also built over part of the earlier Catacombs of Saint Agnes in which the martyr Saint Agnes is believed to be buried and over whose tomb was a small chapel nearby. According to the traditional view, the mausoleum was built in the reign of Constantine I for his daughter Constantina, later also known as Constantia or Costanza, who died in 354. Ultimately, Constantina's sarcophagus was housed here, but it may have been moved fro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mausoleum Of Helena
The Mausoleum of Helena is an ancient building in Rome, Italy, located on the Via Casilina, corresponding to the 3rd mile of the Ancient Rome, ancient Via Labicana. It was built by the Roman emperor Constantine I between 326 and 330, originally as a tomb for himself, as indicated by his sarcophagus found there, but later assigned to his mother Saint Helena of Constantinople, Helena who died in 330. Access to the mausoleum and the catacombs is to the west of the church of Santi Marcellino e Pietro ad Duas Lauros. History The area where the mausoleum is located was known as ''Ad Duas Lauros'', was probably imperial property and used as a cemetery of the Equites singulares. This has been attested by numerous inscriptions mentioning the Equites at Ad Duas Lauros, although the exact location of the necropolis has not been discovered. It has been supposed that the necropolis was deliberately destroyed by Constantine as revenge against the Equites who, in the battle of Ponte Milvio, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pantheon, Rome
The Pantheon (, ; ,Although the spelling ''Pantheon'' is standard in English, only ''Pantheum'' is found in classical Latin; see, for example, Pliny, ''Natural History'36.38 "Agrippas Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis". See also ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'', s.v. "Pantheum"; ''Oxford English Dictionary'', s.v"Pantheon" "post-classical Latin ''pantheon'' a temple consecrated to all the gods (6th cent.; compare classical Latin ''pantheum'')". ) is an ancient 2nd century Roman temple and, since AD 609, a Catholic church called the Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs () in Rome, Italy. It is perhaps the most famous, and architecturally most influential, rotunda. The Pantheon was built on the site of an earlier temple, which had been commissioned by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – AD 14). After the original burnt down, the present building was ordered by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated AD 126. Its date of construction i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roman Architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical ancient Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture. Roman architecture flourished in the Roman Republic and to an even greater extent under the Empire, when the great majority of surviving buildings were constructed. It used new materials, particularly Roman concrete, and newer technologies such as the arch and the dome to make buildings that were typically strong and well engineered. Large numbers remain in some form across the former empire, sometimes complete and still in use today. Roman architecture covers the period from the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 BC to about the 4th century AD, after which it becomes reclassified as Late Antique or Byzantine architecture. Few substantial examples survive from before about 100 BC, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Temple Of Minerva Medica (nymphaeum)
The Temple of Minerva Medica is a ruined nymphaeum of Imperial Rome which dates to the late 3rd or early 4th century CE. It is located between the Via Labicana and Aurelian Walls and just inside the line of the Anio Vetus. Once part of the Horti Liciniani on the Esquiline Hill, it now faces the modern Via Giolitti. It was once thought to be the temple to Minerva Medica ("Minerva the Doctor") mentioned by Cicero and other sources. The decagonal structure in '' opus latericium'' is relatively well preserved, though the full dome collapsed in 1828. It is surrounded on three sides with other chambers which were added at a later date. There is no mention of it in ancient literature or inscriptions. The structure represents a transition in Roman secular architecture between the octagonal dining room of the Domus Aurea and the dome of the Pantheon, and the architecture of nearby Byzantine churches. The diameter of the hall was approximately 24 meters, and the height was 33 meters. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Isis
Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her slain brother and husband, the divine king Osiris, and produces and protects his heir, Horus. She was believed to help the dead enter the afterlife as she had helped Osiris, and she was considered the divine mother of the pharaoh, who was likened to Horus. Her maternal aid was invoked in healing spells to benefit ordinary people. Originally, she played a limited role in royal rituals and temple rites, although she was more prominent in funerary practices and magical texts. She was usually portrayed in art as a human woman wearing a throne-like hieroglyph on her head. During the New Kingdom (), as she took on traits that originally belonged to Hathor, the preeminent goddess of earlier times, Isis was portrayed wearing Hathor's headdress: a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Köln St Gereon Spätantikes Mosaik
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and over 3.1 million people in the Cologne Bonn urban region. Cologne is also part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, the second biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. Centered on the left (west) bank of the Rhine, Cologne is located on the River Rhine (Lower Rhine), about southeast of the North Rhine-Westphalia state capital Düsseldorf and northwest of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. The city's medieval Cologne Cathedral () was the world's tallest building from 1880 to 1890 and is today the third-tallest church and tallest cathedral in the world. It was constructed to house the Shrine of the Three Kings and is a globally recognized landmark and one of the most visited sights and pilgrimage destinations in Europe. The cityscape is further shaped by the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Constantius II
Constantius II (; ; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through repeated civil wars, court intrigues, and usurpations. His religious policies inflamed domestic conflicts that would continue after his death. Constantius was a son of Constantine the Great, who elevated him to the imperial rank of '' Caesar'' on 8 November 324 and after whose death Constantius became ''Augustus'' together with his brothers, Constantine II and Constans on 9 September 337. He promptly oversaw the massacre of his father-in-law, an uncle, and several cousins, consolidating his hold on power. The brothers divided the empire among themselves, with Constantius receiving Greece, Thrace, the Asian provinces, and Egypt in the east. For the following decade a costly and inconclusive war against Persia took most of Constantius's time and at ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Germania Inferior
''Germania Inferior'' ("Lower Germania") was a Roman province from AD 85 until the province was renamed ''Germania Secunda'' in the 4th century AD, on the west bank of the Rhine bordering the North Sea. The capital of the province was Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (modern-day Cologne). Geography According to Ptolemy (2.9), Germania Inferior included the Rhine from its mouth up to the mouth of the ''Obringa'', a river identified with either the Aar or the Moselle. The territory included modern-day Luxembourg, the southern Netherlands, part of Belgium, and part of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, west of the Rhine. The principal settlements of the province were Castra Vetera and Colonia Ulpia Traiana (both near Xanten), Coriovallum ( Heerlen), Albaniana ( Alphen aan den Rijn), Lugdunum Batavorum ( Katwijk), Forum Hadriani ( Voorburg), Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum ( Nijmegen), Traiectum (Utrecht), Atuatuca Tungrorum ( Tongeren), Bona ( Bonn), and Colonia Agrippinensi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Early Christianity
Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the History of Christianity, historical era of the Christianity, Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Spread of Christianity, Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish diaspora throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The first followers of Christianity were Jews who had Proselyte, converted to the faith, i.e. Jewish Christians, as well as Phoenicia, Phoenicians, i.e. Christianity in Lebanon, Lebanese Christians. Early Christianity contains the Apostolic Age and is followed by, and substantially overlaps with, the Patristic era. The Apostolic sees claim to have been founded by one or more of the Apostles in the New Testament, apostles of Jesus, who are said to have Dispersion of the A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |