Frescoes

The decoration of Saint Helen Basilica’s dome and vaults with a fresco cycle by the Italian artist Virginio Monti, was taken in hand in the opening years of the twentieth century from 1906 to 1910. In ten scenes, the vaults and apses depict episodes from the life and glory of Saint Helen, Emperor Constantine’s triumph through the sign of the Cross, the finding of the passion relics and the return to Jerusalem of the relic of the true Cross by Emperor Heraclius.

In the dome is the artist’s depiction of the final triumph of the Cross in the Last Judgement. Four powerful depictions of the Evangelists feature in the dome pendants.