3D print the Basilica of Saint Mary Major
A free, printable model of Saint Mary Major basilica, with its bell tower, two domes and arcaded front, and the dense city blocks around it, generated from real map data in your browser.
Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.
About the Basilica of Saint Mary Major
The Basilica of Saint Mary Major, also called Santa Maria Maggiore, sits at the top of the Esquiline Hill in Rome. Its Latin name is Basilica Sanctae Mariae Maioris. It is Rome's largest church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The original church was built under Pope Liberius, whose pontificate ran 352–366, which is why it is sometimes called the Basilica Liberii or Basilica Liberiana, and a church built by Pope Sixtus III replaced it. A feast on August 5 celebrates how Sixtus III dedicated the rebuilt basilica shortly after the First Council of Ephesus.
A legend about the basilica's origin, which the Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes, tells of a Roman patrician named John and his wife, who had no heirs and vowed to give their property to the Virgin Mary. On August 5, at the peak of a Roman summer, snow fell overnight on the Esquiline Hill, and after a vision of the Virgin Mary the couple built a basilica on the snow-covered spot. The same entry concludes that the legend seems to have no historical basis. No reference to it appears before the year 1000. The feast is popularly called Our Lady of the Snows.
Pope Pius V added the feast to the General Roman Calendar in 1568, as part of his reform of the Roman Breviary. Each August 5, a custom recalls the story of the miraculous snowfall: at the end of Solemn Mass, white rose petals rain down from the ceiling. At sunset the same day, a staged "snowfall" is put on for tourists in the square in front of the basilica.
How it prints
Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
| Print size | Landmark height | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 21 mm | 1:3,750 |
| 200 mm | 27 mm | 1:3,000 |
| 256 mm | 34 mm | 1:2,344 |
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North
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East
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South
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West
- A tall bell tower
- The slim bell tower ends in a pointed top. Print slowly with good cooling, and use 0.12–0.16 mm layers; a larger print makes the tower sturdier.
- Two domes and an arcaded front
- Two domes rise beside the roof, and arches line the front. Print friendly adapts these small details to the print scale; Full detail keeps them on a larger print.
- One piece with the ground
- The Basilica of Saint Mary Major is joined to the ground in the exported file, and the four-side check found no floating parts, so nothing needs gluing.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
- In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
- Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. The Basilica of Saint Mary Major takes the building color.
- File format
- You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About this model
The Basilica of Saint Mary Major is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
Common questions
Is there a Basilica of Saint Mary Major STL I can download?
Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.
How big can I print it?
Any print size from 40 mm across. The Basilica of Saint Mary Major grows with the print: about 21 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.
Is it free?
Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.
