Palestrina (ancient: Praeneste; Ancient Greek: Prainestos) is a modern Italian city and comune (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. It is built upon the ruins of the ancient city of Praeneste. Palestrina is the birthplace of composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Thomas Mann spent some time there in 1895 and, two years later, during the long harsh summer of 1897, he stayed over again, with his brother Heinrich Mann, in a sojourn that provided the backdrop, nearly half a century later, for Adrian Leverkühn’s pact with the Devil in Mann’s novel Doktor Faustus. read more…
The Sapienza University of Rome (Italian: Sapienza – Università di Roma), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”, abbreviated simply as Sapienza (“wisdom”), is a publicresearch university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is as such one of the world’s oldest universities, and with 122,000 students, it is the largest university in Europe. Due to its size, funding, and numerous laboratories and libraries, Sapienza is a major education and research centre in Southern Europe. The university is located mainly in the Città Universitaria (University city), which covers 44 ha (110 acres) near the Tiburtina Station, with different campuses, libraries and laboratories in various locations in Rome. read more…
A cathedra is the raisedthrone of a bishop in the early Christianbasilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop’s throne. With time, the related term cathedral became synonymous with the “seat”, or principal church, of a bishopric. The word in modern languages derives from a normal Greek word kathédra, meaning “seat”, with no special religious connotations, and the Latin cathedra, specifically a chair with arms. It is a symbol of the bishop’s teaching authority in the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion churches. read more…
The Great Synagogue of Rome (Italian: Tempio Maggiore di Roma) is the largest synagogue in Rome. The Jewish community of Rome goes back to the 2nd century B.C when the Roman Republic had an alliance of sorts with Judea under the leadership of Judah Maccabeus. At that time, many Jews came to Rome from Judea. Their numbers increased during the following centuries due to the settlement that came with Mediterranean trade. Then large numbers of Jews were brought to Rome as slaves following the Jewish–Roman wars in Judea from 63 to 135 CE. read more…
The Palazzo Montecitorio is a palace in Rome and the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The palace’s name derives from the slight hill on which it is built, which was claimed to be the Mons Citatorius, the hill created in the process of clearing the Campus Martius in Roman times. read more…