Piligrims in the St. Peter Square
Basilica of St. Peter
Piligrims in the St. Peter Square
| The Basilica of St. Peter, in which the most important ceremonies of the Catholic Church are celebrate, stands on the site of a much smaller basilica erected in the years 324 - 349 by will of the Roman emperor Constantine to honour the tomb of the first Pope, the apostle Peter. | |
| The first stone of the new church was
laid on 18 April 1506 by Pope Julius II at the base of
the column of Veronica (see Basilica
map, no.48). The four colossal
columns and the connecting arches on which the dome
rests, aligned with the saint's tomb, was the work of
Donato Bramante, the inspiration behind the initial
project of the "new St. Peter's". After Bramante's death in 1514, the commission was entrusted to some of the greatest architects of the time (Giuliano da Santagallo Fra Giocondo, Raphael, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Antonio da Santagallo), although the lack of founds caused work to slow considerably. The pace resumed more briskly under Michelangelo in 1546. The latter was responsible for the apse, the transept and the dome, which at the time of his death in 1564 was finished as far as the drum. in 1590, during the papacy of Sixtus V, Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana vaulted the dome, over which Fontana built the lantern in the following year; the ball and cross were erected in 1593, some 136 meters above ground. The interior of the dome was decorated with compound mosaics at the end of the 16th century on cartoons by Cavalier d'Arpino. The photo on the right illustrate the angelic circles of Heaven with God the Father at the summit. |
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| In the years 1606 - 14,
during the papacy of Paul V, Carlo Maderno (who was also
responsible for the Altar of the Confession, map no.52) built the nave and side aisles, the
atrium and the facade. Five bronze doors give on to the atrium. The central one (map no.3), which had the same function in the ancient basilica, may be considered the first Renaissance work in Rome (1445). Its author, the Florentine Antonio Averulino, known as Il Filarete, represented on it Christ, the Virgin Mary, the apostles Peter and Paul and their martyrdoms. The lavish marble decoration of the interior was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who completed the work for the 1650 Jubilee. He was awarded the commission by Urban VIII, under whose papacy the new Basilica was consecrated (18 November 1626). Bernini was also responsible for the bronze Baldachin (1633) which covers the high altar (map no.52) situated over the tomb of St. Peter, and the Throne of St. Peter in Glory (1658 - 66; map no.35) in the apse. Along the side aisles and the wings of the transept a series of cenotaphs reminds us that the building is primarily a burial church, under whose paved floor, at the level of the base of the ancient basilica, are the tombs of popes and sovereigns (the "Vatican Grottoes"). In the central nave, at the foot of the column of St. Longinus, is the venerated bronze Statue of St. Peter (map no.51), a work attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio (13th century), and formerly in the old basilica. |
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| In the first chapel on the right is
the Pietą (map no.6), an early work by Michelangelo sculpted
for the French national chapel in the old St. Peter's. Pope Alexander VII entrusted Bernini with the task of laying out the parvis and square in front of the Basilica, which in the years 1656 - 67 the artist framed with the two converging corridors and double elliptical colonnade. In the 1675 Bernini built the fountain with three tiered pools, the companion piece of the one executed by Maderno in 1613. |
 Michelangelo's Pietą |
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