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The 6th-century church stands on the site of the ancient Temple of Juno Moneta (Juno the Sentinel), but it was also the Roman mint – and the origin of the word “money”. Superstition claims you can win the lottery by climbing on your knees up the 14th-century staircase leading to the unfinished façade – but what you will definitely gain is a fine view. Inside, the nave’s 22 columns come from various ancient structures; the third one on the left is inscribed “a cubiculo Augustorum” (“from the emperor’s bedroom”).

Originally a bread distribution centre, the site became a church in the 6th century and, 200 years later, the focus of Rome’s Greek exile community. The Greek epithet “in Cosmedin” means “decorated”. Very little of the earliest ornamentation remains; most of it is from the 12th and 13th centuries, although there is a graceful altar screen characteristic of Eastern Orthodox churches. The most popular element, however, is the “Bocca della Verità ” (“Mouth of Truth”), an ancient cistern cover. Legend has it that the mouth snaps shut on the hands of liars.

Rome’s oldest church dedicated to the Virgin was founded in 337 on the site where a miraculous font of oil spouted the day Christ was born. The miracle is depicted in the stupendous Life of the Virgin mosaics (1291) by Pietro Cavallini, covering the lower half of the apse. The current 12th-century church has 13th-century mosaics, 22 mismatched ancient columns and a Cosmatesque pavement. There’s also a rare 7th-century panel painting of the Madonna della Clemenza in the chapel left of the altar.

This church is a unique blend of architectural styles. The nave and its mosaics are original 5th-century; the Cosmatesque work, the apse mosaics and the Romanesque bell tower are medieval; the coffered ceiling (of New-World gold) is Renaissance; and the twin domes and front and back façades are Baroque. Pope Sixtus V erected the Egyptian obelisk in 1587 as part of his overall town-planning, to provide landmarks for pilgrims. The column in front was taken from the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in 1615.

The only truly Gothic church in Rome, possibly built, as the name suggests, atop a temple to Minerva. Michelangelo’s bold Risen Christ (1514–21) is a muscular rendition of the Saviour so shockingly nude that church officials added the bronze wisp of drapery. Filippino Lippi frescoed the last chapel on the right; the lower scene on the right wall includes portraits of young Giovanni and Giulio de’ Medici (better known as Popes Leo X and Clement VII), who are buried in tombs by Antonio Sangallo the Younger, in the apse, along with Fra’ Angelico and (most of) St Catherine of Siena.

Built in the 9th century over a 2nd-century oratory, the original design is still discernible despite restorations. In the central nave, a stone slab covers the well where St Prassede is said to have buried 2,000 martyrs. Byzantine artists decorated the apse with mosaics depicting saints, lambs, palm trees and poppies. The walls and vaults of the Chapel of St Zeno also have mosaics from the same period, and there is a fragment of the column Christ was bound to when he was flogged.

The eponymous saints were 4th-century martyrs and their home is still seen under the 5th-century structure. They were beheaded here in 361 on orders from Emperor Julian. Except for the Late Baroque interior, much of the church is pure medieval. The base of the bell tower is that of the 1st-century Temple of Claudius that once stood here.

The unusual shape of this early church (468-83) may mean it was built over Nero’s round Macellum Magnum (meat market). Or perhaps its form was inspired by Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Whatever the case, recent digs have found a Mithraeum underneath (see Mithraeum under San Stefano Rotondo). The structure is a peaceful, delightful sanctuary, situated far from urban uproar, although 16th-century frescoes by Niccolò Pomarancio depict martyrdoms in sadistic fashion.

These 4th-century gems are located in the same Early Christian complex. Both are decorated with sublime mosaic work, the former depicting the martyred St Agnes as she appeared in a vision eight days after her death. The ambulatory around the circular Santa Costanza has truly delightful, richly detailed scenes of an ancient Roman grape harvest.