Multi-level Italian church?

September 21, 2015 2:20 PM

I'm trying to find a link that was on the blue -- I'm pretty sure it wasn't in an actual post, but in a complimentary comment someone left -- about a particular church in Italy that has a ridiculous number of layers of archeological detail.

The link was to a site where someone described each level of the church, starting with what you see when you walk in today, and how the interior of the church has several elements that were built many years apart. And the post goes on, and on, and on in the most amazing fashion. Like, in the interior of the current church there are weird arches near the floor, because if you go down one level there's a whole other church from an earlier era there. And if you go beneath that, there's a more primitive church. And if you go beneath that -- this thing just keeps unfolding till you're at a natural spring that was worshipped as a live-giving force thousands of years ago.

I've tried searching with so many keywords and I'm not finding it. Help?

posted by BlahLaLa to MetaFilter-Related at 2:20 PM (6 comments total)

(Just want to add that additional Googling makes me think the church in question might be the Basilica di San Clemente, but I really would like to find the specific link that was somewhere here on Metafilter.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:35 PM on September 21, 2015

It may have been this post by Ada Palmer.
posted by feckless at 2:35 PM on September 21, 2015 [8 favorites]

This was the MeFi thread.
posted by feckless at 2:36 PM on September 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Thank you, feckless. That was it.
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:42 PM on September 21, 2015

Fun piece of trivia: at the time, Ada Palmer was writing that blog anonymously (the adapalmer tag was added later) - so the gender of the writer was unknown.
posted by Paragon at 9:46 PM on September 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

If anyone has an insatiable thirst for information on this topic, check out my mom's book.
posted by Rumple at 4:48 PM on September 22, 2015 [3 favorites]