The little Aventine is that part of the Aventine on whose cliff Caracalla conceived a public structure of great social and monumental importance: the Baths; on the top of the so-called small Aventine is the Basilica of San Saba today almost suffocated by the construction of popular buildings of the ’50s, but that until the early twentieth century was surrounded by a rural context, although located within the walls.
San Saba was created by a community of oriental monks who escaped from Jerusalem in the seventh century and in its present form it dates back to the eleventh century, preserves outside remains of trabeations, reliefs, and columns from buildings of Roman times, while inside the works of the Cosmati and Vassalletto remind us that these families of marble craftsmen adorned the most important religious buildings of Rome since the twelfth century, and their fame crossed the borders of an Italy fragmented into many small political realities until reaching London.
