A story of sacrilege, the near destruction of the ancient basilica of St. Peter

A story of sacrilege, the near destruction of the ancient basilica of St. Peter in Rome and of an Emperor who had reached his zenith that lasted only days before all his dreams came crashing down to the ground.

In 1167 Frederick Barbarossa is the master of Europe. The mighty German princes served in his army. He had broken the resistance of the Northern Italian cities and destroyed Milan. The Lombards paid him taxes and dues that made him more resourceful than any of his predecessors since the great Otto I.


Only the pope, Alexander III, still held out. Barbarossa had supported antipopes, first Victor IV and by now Paschalis III. In 1166/67 he mustered an army, the largest of his reign to go down to Rome, capture Alexander and install Paschalis III on the throne of St.Peter.

His senior advisers and commanders, the archbishops of Cologne and Mainz had quickly achieved military successes against Roman armies and were outside the its walls in May 1167.

Barbarossa meanwhile got bogged down first in a siege of Ancona and then with relieving a castle under attack from the Sicilians. It took him until the end of July to arrive before the Holy City.

The imperial army broke through the gates of the Vatican city quite easily but then found resistance at the Castel St. Angelo and at the newly fortified basilica of St. Peter.

In the attack on St. Peter the venerable church of Santa Maria in Turri which was adjacent to the great basilica caught fire. Priceless relics and images of Christ were destroyed. The fire spread to the atrium and then the doors of St. Peter itself. At that point the defenders of St. Peter surrendered and the fires could be extinguished. The destruction of this most holy place in Christendom was shocking. Many believed the fires were laid deliberately by imperial soldiers making it even more of a sacrilege. Welf VI, Barbarossa’s uncle and in his youth his best friend, ally and mentor cursed his nephew and the entire army.

With the Vatican city taken by imperial troops the Senate of Rome was ready to come to terms. Rome accepted imperial sovereignty and gave up some of the more radical pretences of communal independence and in exchange Barbarossa and Paschalis III recognised the Senate in perpetuity.

Paschalis III was enthroned in the damaged church of St. Peter on 1st of August and he immediately crowned the empress Beatrix and also Frederick the latter for a second time, just for good measure

Barbarossa’s victory would have been complete had it not been for the escape of Alexander III. The pontiff had left the city just before the coronation, disguised as a simple pilgrim.

On August 2nd a torrential downpour pounded the city. The sudden storm swamped the camp and tore the tents away. Within hours the emperors men and horses began to die.

The symptoms included a high fever, headaches, intense pains in the stomach and intestines, great fatigues and an awful stench emitted by the stricken before they died. It was long believed the epidemic had been malaria, but it is more likely to have been dysentery.

The sudden rainfall had overwhelmed the primitive sanitary conditions and the drinking water had become contaminated with faeces.

Barbarossa and Beatrix, whose accommodation was on a hill overlooking the camp escaped the disease. But of the great princes that accompanied the emperor many died. The bishops of Prague, Liege, Verden, Regensburg, Augsburg and Speyer. But most devastating for the emperor, his trusted advisor, Rainald von Dassel fell victim of the plague. As did some great princes, Welf VII, Frederick of Rothenburg, the son of King Konrad III, Theobald of Bohemia, the counts of Nassau, Pfullendorf, Sulzbach, Tubingen, Leuchtenberg and many more.

Estimates for the overall death toll varied but everyone agreed this was an act of God. The emperor had desecrated not just the Basilica of Saint Peter but the Holy Mother Church itself with his support of the antipope.

Barbarossa left Rome on August 6th, 5 days after his triumphal entry and coronation.

The catastrophic loss of his army ended his hegemony. The Italian cities come together in the Lombard League, Pope Alexander III became recognised by all of Christendom and the German princes no longer followed him across the Alps.

He was down but not out. Over the remaining near 25 years of his reign he clawed back his position as a European leader.

Here is a link to the Barbarossa season of the History of the Germans podcast where you can listen to the show, read transcripts, link to the main podcast platforms, look at maps and lots more

The image is a re-imagination of what the Basilica of St. Peter originally built by Constantine after 313 AD would have looked like in the middle ages. The church of St. Mary in Turri that Barbarossa's men destroyed does not feature in it. It would have stood on the left side of the Atrium

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