After our tour of St. John Lateran we did what pilgrims have been doing for nearly 1,700 years, we climbed the Holy Stairs on our knees. The very steps that Christ would have climbed twice in Jerusalem to be judged by Pontius Pilate. St. Helena brought these stairs of the praetorium of Jerusalem to Rome in about 325 a.d., and since millions and millions of people have climbed them on their knees in prayer. So many have climbed them that the marble was drastically worn away and for 150 plus years they have been covered in hardwood. You are seeing the wood in the picture, but underneath is the original 28 marble steps.