The complex of S. Maria in Via Lata was built on several levels in a pre-existing porticus from the imperial era. An earlier church occupied the ground floor of the porticus, while the present one, dating back to the High Middle Ages, is located on the first floor. Today's church retains its medieval layout (although the orientation of the building was reversed in modern times). It is divided into three naves by round-arched arcades set on bare columns, which are still in place beneath the modern cladding. Numerous indications converge that the building site was undertaken during the pontificate years of Pope Paschal II (1099-1118). Scanty remains of disassembled liturgical furnishings are preserved, all pertaining to different phases. In the lower church, there are two altars: a masonry block altar with two cavities for the storage of relics, and a block altar with cosmatesque stone inlays made reusing a marble altar (ara) from the classical period. In the upper church, there are traces of a lost high altar, probably with a ciborium, whose mensa was supported by a concave long porphyry stone (petra porphirea longa), probably a precious basin from the Classical period. In the lower church, there is the reuse of two small pillars with 12th-century Cosmatesque work in the parapet. In the upper church in the floor of the chapels of SS. Ciriaco and Nicola and of the Sacramento, there are two Cosmatesque slabs with quincunxes, similar in size and ornamental motif, probably plutei from an enclosure (schola cantorum).

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