Rome, Italy: Church of Saint Paul at the Three Fountains: Tourists Walking On Street
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Tourists walk along the Via delle Acque Salvie, the entrance avenue within the Abbey of the Three Fountains (Rome, Italy), run by Cistercian monks belonging to the Trappist order. This street leads to the Arch of Charlemagne, which is the actual entrance to the abbey complex. The plants within the complex have symbolic meanings. These trees may or may not be laurels, but laurel trees do line a more distant road in the complex to the Church of the Martyrdom of St. Paul. In Christianity, laurels symbolize Christ's resurrection and the triumph of humanity. The Abbey of Three Fountains is four miles outside Rome. It contains three churches, of which the Church of Saint Paul at the Three Fountains (Church of the Martyrdom of Saint Paul; San Paolo alle Tre Fontane; Church of St. Paul the Apostle) is most sacred. This church was built on the site where Saint Paul was beheaded on Emperor Nero's order. As a Roman citizen, Saint Paul could not be executed within the city. The other two churches in the complex are the earliest one: the Benedictine Church of Saint Vincent and Saint Anastasius, built in 626; and the 16th century Roman Catholic Church of Saint Maria Scala Coeli, where Saint Paul stopped to pray for the last time before he was beheaded. The legend is that Paul's head bounced three times and fountains sprang up at each spot; hence, the title of "Three Fountains." Actually, fountains already existed at the site when Paul was beheaded.
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CC BY-NC-SA 4.0