6. The Chapel of the relics

This was the last chapel to be built, erected in the last decade of the 17th century according to a design by Filippo Parodi, a disciple of Bernini, who offers us here a beautiful example of Roman Baroque. The chapel was built as a place dedicated to the preservation of the Treasures of the Basilica, as an alternative to the Sacristy. The treasures are collected in the three niches located beyond the raised balustrade. In the one in the center we find the Saint’s most distinguished relics: at the top, the Chin reliquary from 1350; below, that of the Tongue, made between 1434 and 1436; and in the lowest shelf that of the Vocal Apparatus, from 1982.