The earliest surviving Christian mosaics come from Italy. The churches of Santa Constanza and Santa Pudenziana contain the two earliest known examples, both of which were made in the 4th century.
Christian mosaics flourished in the medieval period. One of the better-known ones is housed in the monastery in Grottaferrata, a town 13 miles from Rome. It shows the 12 apostles sitting next to an empty throne, which is meant to symbolize Jesus Christ's ascent to heaven. In Florence, the dome of the Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistery of St. John) has a famous mosaic of the Last Judgment.
In Orthodox cultures, mosaic-making was very popular in the medieval period. Several examples can be found in Kiev, Ukraine. In Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral, a mosaic of the Last Supper was made in the 14th century. In 2003, the ruins of a 10th-century mosaic were found near the River Mures in Romania.
During the Renaissance, mosaics mostly went out of fashion. Instead, frescoes came into vogue. Some of the great artists of the Renaissance, however, contributed to the "old-fashioned" mosaic genre. One of the more famous examples is "The Creation of the World" by Raphael, which decorates the dome of the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo. Baroque-style mosaics can be found throughout St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Ciro Ferri, Guido Reni, Domenichino, Carlo Maratta and Raphael all contributed designs. Part of the reason why the Papacy decided to decorate the Basilica with mosaics was that mosaics last longer than frescoes and canvases.