The article dates the present church to the reign of Pope Celestine I, with groundbreaking in 432, though Sixtus III consecrated it on August 5, 434. It stands on the site of the earlier Liberian Basilica. Benedict XIV commissioned the present facade and interior changes in the 1740s. Ferdinando Fuga designed them, finished in 1743, and his loggia masks the 12th-century facade.
The basilica is 302 feet (92 m) long, 260 feet (80 m) wide and 246 feet (75 m) high. The nave stands on 36 marble and 4 granite columns. Mosaics of the 5th century line the nave and triumphal arch, and Jacopo Torriti signed the apse mosaic of 1295. Giuliano da Sangallo designed the 16th-century coffered ceiling.
The 14th-century campanile is described as the highest in Rome. The Sistine Chapel here, named for Sixtus V, is not the Vatican's. The Borghese Chapel holds the Salus Populi Romani icon.
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