A gigantic gothic fresco measuring over five hundred square meters has been discovered by restorers in all its splendour during the restoration project on the ancient church of Santi Quattro Coronati near Rome's Colosseum.  Restorers are rushing to get it ready for the Jubileo celebrations next year although each expert working on the fresco can achieve restoration of only a patch of 20 square centimetres per day.

Hailed by the Italians as "the first real miracle of the Jubileo" the frescoes are a colourful feast for the eyes. Almost five hundred square meters of fresco paintings have been revealed in an extraordinary state of preservation. Beautifully executed but as yet unattributed, they are considered an extremely important addition to the study of duecento art.

The frescoes were found behind blue painted walls in rooms on the second floor of the church of Santi Quattro Coronati in the heart of Rome. A thick layer of whitewash was found to have covered the paintings four centuries ago. There are two large wall areas of fresco. The first measures two and half meters in height and shows the cycle of  the twelve months of the year. 
Each month features figures employed at work suitable to the season; December depicts men slaughtering pigs, February the men are pruning the trees and for June the harvesters are mowing fields. On the second wall which measures some four metres in width a master painter has depicted all the liberal arts and sciences. (Grammar, Music, Mathematics etc.). Then, higher above these between the groin ribbed vaults of the ceiling are painted the Four Seasons with personifications of the winds. An additional section depicting the signs of the zodiac is the only part which is in a mildly bad condition. All the subjects therefore are profane but the figures and decorative elements are painted in various styles that incorporate paleochristian, gothic romantic and byzantine mannerisms.

In 1200 the church of Santi Quattro Coronati (the Four Crowned Saints) was already one of the most sacred and best fortified churches in Rome. It is located half way between the Colosseum and San Giovanni in Laterano which was then the residence of the Pope.