Built as the first Christian showpiece the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore graces Rome's
highest promontory the Esquiline Hill. With its exterior beauty and its interior mosaics the
Basilica was meant to bestow upon the Eternal City of Rome a new Christian aspect. The
foundation of this new beginning is Jesus Christ who now reigns over the Imperial City and the
globe instead of the earlier pagan goddess Roma. He is not solely a man like all the former
Roman emperors but the son of the Eternal God. The Basilica defies the bishop of
Constantinople Nestorius who had publicly expressed doubts about the divinity of the man
Jesus.
