100 000 Lire - John Paul II San Paolo fuori le mura

Issued as part of the Vatican's annual gold series for the Jubilee preparatory years, this 1997 piece commemorates the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura — the great church built over the traditional site of Paul's burial on the Via Ostiensis. The original basilica was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1823, one of the most catastrophic losses of early Christian architecture in Rome's modern history. Reconstruction took decades and was funded by contributions from Catholic communities worldwide, including notably from the Egyptian Khedive Muhammad Ali Pasha.