Last March 19th, the church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami in the Roman Forum reopened on an extraordinary basis, the ceiling of which had unexpectedly collapsed on August 30th 2018, fortunately without causing injuries or victims. The event had caused much regret and apprehension, especially among admirers of the church which is located above the Mamertine prison, a place of particular historical and religious interest in the Roman Forum. 

The chronicles narrate that in those gloomy prisons people who were enemies of Rome such as Vercingetorix and the associates of Catiline's conspiracy found their death, as well as the most important figure of the first Christian chronicles during the Empire: the apostle Peter, who was locked up there and who would have miraculously caused a spring to flow from the bottom of the cell to baptize his jailers. 

The Vicariate of Rome immediately started to make the church safe and to restore the collapsed nave: it involved a beautiful coffered wooden ceiling, decorated in the 600s by Giovanni Battista Montano, with an image of the Nativity. The image depicted Jesus in the center, Mary on the left kneeling in front of the Child, and Joseph protecting the scene in the background.