Church of Santa Croce in Jerusalem

Church of Santa Croce in Jerusalem. This building was the "Sessorium", an imperial palace where Saint Helena, Constantine's mother, lived. In the 4th century Helen went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. She returned bearing a fragment of the True Cross and in the same year she dead. In memory of his mother, the Emperor Constantine converted the palace into a church to house the precious relic.

It was here that Constantine's mother Saint Helena had transported a great quantity of relics from the Holy Land; to house them, the basilica of Santa Croce di Gerusalemme was later built not far away.