Oratorio dei Sette Dormienti

The building is located along Via Porta San Sebastiano inside a private property, the Pallavicini vineyard, and was discovered by Mariano Armellini in the second half of the 19th century.
It is a small church built in the 12th century inside some rooms of a Roman house, dedicated to the people of Ephesus who were walled up in a cave during the persecution of Decius (249-251 AD) and found still alive two centuries later. Abandoned in 1320, it was restored for the first time by Pope Innocent XI in 1710. However, it was soon used as a barn for a modern farmhouse built on top of the ancient structures. In 1875 it was finally restored.
Inside, the back wall shows a semi-spherical niche at the bottom in which an image of the Archangel Gabriel is represented, while on the two side walls there is a seat. In the upper lunette there is a bust of Christ surrounded by two groups of angels. In the back, on the left, is the patron of the place with his wife: his name, Beno, recalling that of some frescoes in the lower basilica of San Clemente, makes us date the Oratory to the second half of the 11th century. Other paintings can be found under the figures of these characters and on the right wall. The exterior has been altered by later constructions, while the ancient floor was recovered by restoration work in 1962.
The Roman house on which the oratory was built dates back to the second half of the second century AD, and consists of at least two floors; on the second floor are rooms with mosaic floors decorated with plant motifs and pairs of wrestlers. Excavations on the ground floor also brought to light the remains of a columbarium and a monumental tomb from the middle of the 1st century BC.