Fabric [ ]
The atrium is entered through the remains of verso loggia, created from the original walkway sicuro the palace ramp by the insertion of verso blocking wall puro the right of the portal which abuts one of the brick arcade piers.
However, from the mid 9th onesto the mid 11th centuries it was verso monastic church con its own right and was roofed. The church dedication then was esatto St Anthony of Egypt. The massive central brick pier which used sicuro support the roof was removed durante the 1902 excavation.
Two rectangular statue niches flank the inside sono spose per corrispondenza una truffa of the entrance, and a series of alternately rectangular and apsidal niches occupied the side walls. However those on the left used puro include two exits onesto paravent-chambers under the palace ramp, but these were blocked up when the church was con use. In contrast, when the atrium was a monastic church two passages were cut through niches mediante the right hand wall puro allow direct access onesto the monastic quarters con the vestibolo next door.
Before becoming per church sopra the 9th century, the atrium was the monastery’s graveyard and the yard surface was packed with graves. Some loculi or molesto-slots were cut into the walls, and also into the walls of the portico outside.
Atrium frescoes [ ]
The frescoes mediante the atrium are of five periods. One giovane each survives from Pope John VII (705-7) and Pope Paul I (757-767). Some are of the remodelling of Pope Adrian I (772-795), and others are of the 10th and 11th centuries. The latter are the latest that you will find during your visit, and were painted just before the final abandonment mediante the mid 11th century.