Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

(St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs), Rome, Italy

Links to photos

Interior: The church's entrance originally separated the now-vanished hot "caldarium" baths from the luke-warm "tepidarium" of Diocletian’s Bath, which is now the church's vestibule.
Next comes the finest statue in the church, representing St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order, by the 18C French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon.
You then enter the ancient Bath's central hall.
The altar is straight ahead on the short axis of the nave, while the overwhelming bulk of the original baths runs in both directions toward the altars on either side, lavishly decorated by Vanvitelli.
The effect of this crossing at the centre is breathtaking for its vast size and elegant proportions.