Roma - Santa Maria in Cosmedin

A Roman Temple existed here near an ancient food wholesale-market. Over the the centuries this temple was converted into a small Christian church. When during the iconoclastic riots in Byzantium many Greeks fled to Rome, Pope Adrian I in 772 commisioned the building of the church. Greek monks decorated the church, known as "Santa Maria in Schola Graeca" at that time.

The church was built with a nave and two aisles. The nave has a fine Cosmatesque pavement.