Roma - Santa Maria in Cosmedin

A Roman Temple existed here near an ancient food wholesale-market. Over the the centuries this temple was converted into a small Christian church. When during the iconoclastic riots in Byzantium many Greeks fled to Rome, Pope Adrian I in 772 commisioned the building of the church. Greek monks decorated the church, known as "Santa Maria in Schola Graeca" at that time.

Most of the pillars were already part of the Roman temple.