The surrounding area contains dozens of churches, some of the oldest and most neglected in the city. We first stopped at Santa Maria Dominica, the fairly conventional church with the arched facade. Very old, some very old mosaics, nothing special. The next church, the round Santo Stefano Rotondo, is one of the world's oldest surviving church buildings, from around 400 AD. It's a pretty powerful religious statement if you're so inclined because it's so pure, earnest and quiet, although a thousand years later the church decided it would be more powerful with frankly disturbing frescoes of saints being martyred in disgusting ways.