An air of genuine devotion hangs over the Santuario della Scala Santa & Sancta Sanctorum. This small sanctuary houses the Scala Santa, a marble staircase that’s said to be the one Jesus walked up in Pontius Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem. Pilgrims consider it sacred and climb it on their knees, saying a prayer on each of the 28 steps. At the top, behind an iron grating, is the richly decorated Sancta Sanctorum (Holy of Holies), formerly the popes’ private chapel.
Near the sanctuary building you’ll see a showy brick facade adorned with a gold apse mosaic. This is the Triclinium Leoninum, an 18th-century reconstruction of a wall from the original Palazzo Laterano.