CIBORIUM ARCHES, C8-C9, REUSED IN THE ABBOT'S THRONE, C11. CRYPT OF S. ALESSIO This Aventine church claims a C4 pedigree, but first emerges into written history during the reign of Leo III (795-816) as a diaconia or food distribution centre. The ciborium over the high altar in the upper church could conceivably have been a commission by that pope, who is best known for his coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas Day, 800, in Old St Peter's. The crypt was rebuilt by Cluniac Benedictines in the C11, who had been given the church and its adjoining abbey in c. 1050. Probably this was when the old and rather small ciborium was dismantled and two of its four sides were adapted as the arms of the abbot's throne, as the crypt also functioned as a chapter house. We can clearly see one side of the forner ciborium, with its braided arch and stylised trees, topped by wavy curls.

He's a Cluniac, #Cluniac, on the floor / And he's praying like he's never prayed before! #SpoliaSunday takes us to the #spolia rich #crypt of #SantAlessio on the #Aventine in #Rome, where a reformist community of monks reused a #Romanesque #ciborium to built the abbot's #throne.