The museum of the treasury of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran was inaugurated in 1984 by Saint John Paul II, and offers visitors a long series of liturgical vestments and furnishings of various kinds, reliquaries and significant objects in the centuries-long history of the Basilica. The visitor, walking inside the Museum of the Treasury of the Basilica, is able to encounter works spanning a period of time from the Middle Ages to the present day.
Among the museum’s showcases, it is possible to admire the chains of Saint John the Evangelist, with which the saint was bound from Ephesus to Rome, or the relics – to name but a few – of Saint Helen, Saint Cecilia, Saint Barbara, Saint Francis, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Mary of Egypt. Also among the museum’s treasures are the cope that, according to tradition, was worn by Pope Boniface VIII at the moment of the proclamation of history’s first Jubilee in 1300.
One of the most significant elements of this museum is the Lateran Cross, also known as the Constantinian Cross, famous for its profound theological message. There are also numerous gifts from the Presidents of the French Republic, from Charles de Gaulle onwards, honorary protocanons of the Lateran Basilica. Also of importance is the Lateran monstrance, datable to 1830, commissioned by the Lateran Chapter to recall an ancient monstrance destroyed by Napoleon's troops at the end of the eighteenth century.
Of particular interest is the showcase dedicated to the Jubilee, in which some of the instruments used for the opening of the holy door of the Basilica are displayed. In addition to these, some bricks from the holy door in various periods are on display. Among the documents exhibited here, one may observe the Bull of Indiction of the great Jubilee of the year 2000, signed by Saint John Paul II, and the Bull of Indiction of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, signed by Pope John XXIII.
Finally, one can admire the Lateran Tapestry, commissioned in Rome by Cardinal Chigi in 1620. It features those to whom the Lateran Basilica is dedicated: namely, the Holy Saviour, together with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. These three figures envelop the entire Lateran complex, which is shown as it appeared until the end of the 1800s.
