ELENA, santa - Moneta d'oro.
Kurt Rathe
III. MAUSOLEUM OF ST. HELENA - After her death, which occurred around 335 (O. Seeck, Hélène, in Pauly-Wissowa, VII, II, col. 2820), the Augusta E. was transported to the "urbe regia" (εἰς τὴν βασιλεόουσαν πόλιν) to be deposited in the imperial tombs (ἐρῶσις βασιλικοῖς ἀπετίθετο); Eusebius, Vita Const., III, 47. According to St. John Chrysostom, the "urbe regia" is Rome (St. J. Chrysostom, Contra Iudaeos et gentiles, 9: PG 48, 825), and the imperial tombs are undoubtedly the mausoleum ad "duas lauros" on the Via Labicana, the ruins of which are known by the name of Tor Pignattara.
The Liber Pontificalis (6th c.) mentions this mausoleum in connection with the construction of the Constantinian Basilica in honor of the martyrs Peter and Marcellinus on the Via Labicana ("... fecit ... Constantinus... et mysileum ubi mater eius sepulta est Helena Augusta, via Lavicana miliario III": Lib. Pont., I, p. 182); the "Notitia ecclesiarum" of the 7th c. describes it as a rotunda ("... et s. Helena in sua rotonda": G. B. De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, I, Rome 1864, p. 178), the "Liber de locis" (7th c.) calls it a
church ("... ecclesia est s. Helenae ubi ipsa corpore iacet": G. B. De Rossi, ibid., p. 178) and in the 8th c. it receives the title of "basilica" ("... coemeterium... iuxta basilicaam beatae Helenae": Lib. Pont., I, p. 500), probably because, after the demolition of the Basilica of the two martyrs, it had to serve as a church itself.
The mausoleum was built at the third milestone of the Via Labicana, that is, "in the center of the immense 4th-century Labican imperial latifundium called Subaugusta, which extended from the church of S. Croce (Sessorianum) to Centocella, including all the villas and gardens" (G. Tomasetti, La campagna romana, III, Rome 1913, p. 388). Initially, it was intended to be the tomb of the Emperor and the imperial family. But after the construction of a new mausoleum in Constantinople for the burial of Constantine, the mausoleum on the Via Labicana remained exclusively for the imperial family. Constantine had his mother buried in his own sarcophagus ad "duas lauros". This sarcophagus with reliefs of horsemen later served as the tomb of Anastasius IV (1153-54) in the Lateran Basilica. It is currently located in the Greek Cross room of the Vatican Museum.
The construction of the mausoleum was begun after the victory over Maxentius (312). In fact, funerary cippi of the "equites singulares", the Emperor's bodyguard disbanded by Constantine who also destroyed the free burial granted to them in the imperial Subaugusta, were found used in the foundations of the complex (P. Crostarosa, Nuovo Bull. arch. crist., 3 [1897], pp. 117-22). This dating is confirmed by the brick material coming from the "Officina S.R.F. Domitiana", which flourished until 320.
The mausoleum appears as a centrally planned building consisting of a rotunda preceded by a very vast atrium, surrounded on three sides by a wall with lean-to porticoes, while on the western side a larger portico served as an entrance (A. Bosio, Roma sotterranea, Rome 1634, p. 323). The rotunda has an inner diameter of 20.18 m, a wall thickness of 3.78 m, and a wall height of 15.12 m. Inside, the cylindrical wall of the rotunda appears articulated in its architectural lines: it shows in fact four
curvilinear niches on the diagonals and three rectilinear niches on the axes. The fourth rectilinear niche on the west was used as the entrance. Above this zone of niches, the wall decreases in thickness, which is noticeable on the inside but clearly visible from the outside due to the recess of the cylindrical wall. Furthermore, eight niches with arched windows open on the outside, corresponding to the lower interior niches. The wall of the rotunda is crowned by a console frieze and surmounted by a dome constructed by means of pignatte (amphorae [pignatte from which came the popular name of Tor Pignattara]). The brick masonry was plastered on the outside, while on the inside it was revetted in marble.
Excavations carried out in 1941 on the western side of the mausoleum brought to light masonry remains, with marble incrustations and mosaics, which seem to have belonged to a building or a courtyard corresponding to the rotunda of the mausoleum (Cf. Deichmann, op. cit. in bibl.).
From an architectural standpoint, the mausoleum of S. E. appears as a masterpiece of the late imperial era and can be compared to the other famous one of Romulus on the Appian Way. As such, it closes the series of pagan round buildings and inaugurates the history of Christian central-plan buildings, being the prototype of the imperial mausoleum in Constantinople. - See pl. XVI.