Le forme del culto e della devozione negli spazi intramuranei

Many ancient sources indicate exactly the location of the sanctuaries intra or extra moenia and so allow to focus on a specific “topography of holiness” in the spaces inside the walls, the goal of this paper. It is clear that a larger number of churches dedicated to the saints within the walls marked the imagine of the towns of most “successful” between the fourth and seventh centuries (this phenomenon is of significant proportions in Rome and Ravenna). The presence of the Saint inside the walls is manifested in different ways: the massive introduction of relics - the few burials considered original present many problems of interpretation -, the spatial root of the hagiographic memory, the role of Saints in protection of the city.