St Paul at the Three Fountains is a Catholic church located in the neighbourhood Ardeatino and belongs to a complex of three churches of which it is the oldest one. This area was previously called Ad aquas salvias and was the place of Saint Paul apostle’s martyrdom. According to the legend, after Paul was beheaded his head bounced three times generating three springs of water: a hot one, a warm one and a cold one. At first three aediculae were built to then leave space to a first church built in the fifth century.
The facade presents a marble plaque mentioning that St Paul’s martyrdom happened in this location and at the top on the tympanum two statues dedicated to St Paul and St Peter. At the entrance of the church there is a cosmatesque mosaic that dates back to the Middle Ages and was brought to light during some renovation in the nineteenth century. This church has a very simple diagram with a central nave, two side chapels and some recesses from which the water springs used to come out until 1950. Today visitors can only see the original fountains built with black porphyry columns.
