Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls

This guide to the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome starts on the night of July 15, 1823, when a workman named Giacomo left a pan of glowing coals on the roof of a church that had stood almost unchanged since the age of Emperor Theodosius. It follows what the fire took and what it spared, and the flood of gifts that arrived afterward from rulers as far away as Egypt and Russia. Look up at the gold mosaic above the arch that the flames never reached.