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France’s national church in Rome has some damaged Domenichino frescoes (1616–17) in the second chapel on the right, but everyone bee-lines for the last chapel on the left, housing three large Caravaggio works. His plebeian, naturalistic approach often ran foul of Counter-Reformation tastes. In a “first draft” version of the Angel and St Matthew , the angel guided the hand of a rough labourer-type saint; the commissioners made the artist replace it with this more courtly one. Underlying sketches in Martyrdom of St Matthew and Calling of St Matthew (see Caravaggio’s Calling of St Matthew) show how Caravaggio was moving away from symbolic compositions in favour of more realistic scenes.

Rome’s second largest church has had a history of violent ups and downs. It was built by Constantine in the 4th century, over the spot where St Paul was buried, and for about 400 years it was the largest church in Europe, until it was sacked by the Saracens in 846. It was rebuilt and fortified, but its position outside the walls left it mostly ignored until the mid-11th century, when it underwent a renewal. Then came the 1823 fire, which led to the reworking we see today.

Michelangelo’s Moses is the unmissable experience here. Weirdly horned and glaring, the righteously indignant patriarch is about to smash the tablets down in outrage at his people’s idolatry. This powerful sculpture was just one of 40 the artist planned, but never finished, for the tomb of Pope Julius II (see Michelangelo’s Moses). It has recently been restored. The original shrine was built in the 4th century to house the chains supposedly used to bind St Peter in prison. It has been rebuilt since, first in the 8th century and again in the 15th century.

Originally a 7th-century oratory for Palestinian monks fleeing their homeland, the present church is a 10th-century renovation, with many additions. The portico of the beautiful 15th-century loggia houses a wealth of archaeological fragments. Greek style in floorplan, with three apses, the interior decoration is mostly Cosmatesque (see Cosmatesque Pavement). The greatest oddity is a 13th-century fresco showing St Nicholas about to toss a bag of gold to three naked girls lying on a bed, thus saving them from prostitution.

At the foot of the Palatine, this small, circular, 6th-century church is one of Rome’s hidden treasures. St Theodore was martyred on this spot, and his church was built into the ruins of a great horrea (grain warehouse) that stood here. The apse mosaic showing Christ seated upon an orb is original, but the Florentine cupola (1454) and other treatments are mostly 15th-century restorations ordered by Pope Nicholas V. The courtyard was designed by Carlo Fontana in 1705.

Built atop the saint’s house, some of which is visible in the crypt excavations. A Guido Reni painting of Cecilia’s decapitation sits off a right-hand corridor of the nave. Under the apse’s glittering 9th-century mosaics rests a baldacchino (1293) by Arnolfo di Cambio and Carlo Maderno’s 1600 statue of the saint (he saw her incorrupt body when her tomb was opened in 1599). Ring the bell on the left aisle to see the top half of Pietro Cavallini’s Last Judgment (1289- 93), his only remaining fresco in Rome.

In 1561 the pope commissioned Michelangelo to transform the central hall of Diocletian’s Baths, the frigidarium (cold plunge room), into a church. The result is this overwhelming space, which gives a clearer idea than anywhere else in Rome of how vast these public bathing palaces were. Even then, the finished church takes up only half of the original. Michelangelo had to raise the floor 2 m (6 ft) in order to use the ancient 15-m (50-ft) rose-red granite columns the way he wanted to.

Baccio Pontelli rebuilt this church for Pope Sixtus IV in 1480–84, but the lovely and surprising façade (1656–7), its curved portico squeezed into a tiny piazza, is a Baroque masterpiece by Pietro da Cortona. Raphael’s first chapel on the right is frescoed with Sibyls (1514) influenced by the then recently unveiled Sistine ceiling (see Sistine Chapel Works). Peruzzi decorated the chapel across the aisle and Bramante’s first job in Rome was designing a cloister based on ancient examples. It now hosts frequent concerts.

This 17th-century Baroque extravaganza has perhaps Rome’s most ornate decor, most of it executed by Bernini and his students. The most indulgent corner is the Cornaro Chapel, to the left of the altar, home to Bernini’s shocking Ecstacy of St Teresa (see Bernini’s Ecstasy of St Teresa).