The new Christian ideas began to spread around the Capital at the end of the I century AD. One hundred years later the Christians felt like leaving an evidence asking to be buried all together inside underground graveyards.

In 313 AD the emperor Costantine proclaimed the religious tolerance all over the Roman Empire. Yet it took longer than a century before the heritage of the pagan city gave way to the new ideology.

The mentality changed only when wealthy members of the aristocracy were converted to Christianity. What was refused by the Church for a long time became part of the “legacy”: the myth and the greatness of Rome couldn’t die.

The rise of Christianity as the state religion marked a turning point also in visual arts. Features, colours, patterns, symbols: old and new, Paganism and Christianity.

Discovering the new political power and the needs of the Christians through the glittering jewel-coloured mosaics and the different, innovative architecture.