Mausoleum of Constantina

The Mausoleum of Constantina was built in the 4th century AD for Constantina, the daughter of the emperor Constantine I. It later became a church known as Santa Costanza. It is one of the best preserved buildings from Late Antiquity left in Rome. Not much on the outside, as you can see.

Although it looks somewhat better in this view.

Interior

The glory of the place is the wonderful mosaics, especially those in the ceiling of the ambulatory.

Lovely.

More in the niches.

This disputed object, now in the Vatican Museum, is thought to be the sarcophagus of Constantina. Many stories are told of it. According to official Italian tourism promoters,

During the 17th century, the Mausoleo is the meeting place of a bizarre association of Dutch and Flemish artists called Bent-vogels (birds of the band). Every time the group was enriched by a new member, a baptism party was celebrated with abundant libations, in a tavern on the Via Nomentana. After a night of debauchery the Bent-vogels made a last solemn toast in the temple of Bacchus in front of the porphyry sarcophagus, considered the sepulchre of the god. The feast could last up to three days and three nights. In 1720, Pope Clemente XI forbade this custom because it profaned the ancient Mausoleo. The names of some of these Bent-vogels, engraved in the niches of the ambulatory, are still visible today.

Cool.