Santi Cosma e Damiano

Rotunda

In the area below the Rotunda (accessible from the Roman Forum) commonly known as the "Temple of Romulus, but now definitively identified by the archaeologist Filippo Coarelli as the Temple of Jupiter Stator, some very degraded mural paintings are preserved. They are traced back to the time of Pope Urban IV in the 13th century. Attributed to an anonymous Roman artist, the frescoes constitute an intermediate moment between the great Byzantine style painting and the new trends that will be expressed at the end of the 13th century.

The access to the circular building from the Forum was closed for many years because of concerns about its stability. In 2015, after a long restoration, it housed an exhibition of the statues of Fonte di Giuturna. It was at last possible to see some of the decoration of the circular building prior to the changes made in the XVIIth century which turned it into a crypt.