Places
The white classical façade of St John Lateran, topped by a row of colossal statues.
The main façade. Photo: NikonZ7II, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Place · Pilgrimage site · Cathedral

Archbasilica of St John Lateran

The cathedral of Rome: the seat of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, and one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of the city.

Location
Rome, Italy
Building
Cathedral (the Pope’s cathedral as Bishop of Rome); papal major basilica
Tradition
Roman Catholic
Religious use
In use as the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome.
Official website
Archbasilica of St John Lateran

Map Building location: Apple Maps · Google Maps — the building, not a confirmed visitor entrance.

The Lateran, not St Peter’s, holds the bishop’s chair of Rome, and its title calls it the mother and head of all churches in Rome and in the world. It is the oldest of the four major papal basilicas and one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome.

In the Atlas

Each paragraph says whether it is documented history, a tradition handed down, or disputed.

  • Documented

    The church was founded in 324 and is the oldest public church in Rome. The adjacent Lateran Palace was the main residence of the popes until the Middle Ages.

  • Documented

    The building deteriorated in the Middle Ages and was badly damaged by two fires in the fourteenth century. It was rebuilt in the late sixteenth century under Pope Sixtus V.

  • Documented

    Although it lies outside Vatican City, the basilica is a property of the Holy See with extraterritorial status under the Lateran Treaty of 1929.

Reference draft. The statements were checked against the general reference sources below, read in a build session (Wikipedia at a recorded revision, and Wikidata). They have not yet been checked against scholarly or primary sources.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran — Wikipedia (English)

    Read on 28 Oct 2026 at revision 1378091657, fetched by the research workflow (research/fetched/places/archbasilica-of-st-john-lateran/wikipedia.txt). A general reference work, not a scholarly source; the statements here were checked against it.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Wikidata item Q84090 (Archbasilica of St. John Lateran) — Wikidata

    Read on 28 Oct 2026: instance of, religion, diocese, coordinates and official website.