St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's is a church in the Renaissance style located in the Vatican City west of the River Tiber and near the Janiculum Hill and Hadrian's Mausoleum. Its central dome dominates the skyline of Rome. The basilica is approached via St. Peter's Square, a forecourt in two sections, both surrounded by tall colonnades. The first space is oval and the second trapezoid. The façade of the basilica, with a giant order of columns, stretches across the end of the square and is approached by steps on which stand statues of the first century apostles to Rome, Saints Peter and Paul.

St. Peter's Basilica

The basilica is cruciform in shape, with an elongated nave in the Latin cross form but the early designs were for a centrally planned structure and this is still in evidence in the architecture. The central space is dominated both externally and internally by one of the largest domes in the world. The entrance is through a narthex, or entrance hall, which stretches across the building. One of the decorated bronze doors leading from the narthex is the Holy Door, only opened during jubilees.

Holy Door

The entire interior of St. Peter's is lavishly decorated with marble, reliefs, architectural sculpture and gilding. The basilica contains a large number of tombs of popes and other notable people, many of which are considered outstanding artworks. There are also a number of sculptures in niches and chapels, including Michelangelo's Pietà. The central feature is a baldachin, or canopy over the Papal Altar, desingned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The sanctuary culminates in a sculptural ensemble, also by Bernini, and containing the symbolic Chair of Saint Peter.

Pietà

St. Peter's Basilica is one of four Papal Basilicas or Major Basilicas of Rome. It is the most prominent building in the Vatican City. Probably the largest church in Christendom, it covers an area of 2.3 hectares. One of the holiest sites of Christianity in the Catholic Tradition, it is traditionally the burial site of its titular Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to the Catholic Tradition, also the first Bishop of Antioch and later first Bishop of Rome, the first Pope. Construction of the current basilica, over the old Constantinian basilica, began on 18 April 1506. At length on 18 November 1626, Pope Urban VII solemnly didicated the church.

The Dome Of Saint Peters Basilica Vatican City Rome Italy

St. Peter's Basilica is neither the Pope's official seat nor first in rank among the Major Basilicas of Rome. However, St. Peter's Basilica is most certainly the Pope's principal church, as most Papal ceremonies take place there due to its size, proximity to the papal residence, and location within the Vatican City walls.

History

According to the tradition, Peter's remains were buried just outside the Circus of Nero, on the Mons Vaticanus across the Via Cornelia from the Circus, less than 40 ft(150 m) from his place of death. The Via Cornelia was a road which ran east to west along the norht wall of the Circus on land now covered by the southern portions of the Basilica and Saint Peter's Square. Peter's grave was initially marked simply by a red rock, symbolic of his name. A shrine was built on this site some years later. Almost three hundread years later, Old St. Peter's Basilica was constructed over this site.

Remains of original Tomb of St Peter.

Old St. Peter's Basilica

Was the building that stood, from the 4th to 16th centuries, on the spot where the new St. Peter's Basilica stands today in Vatican City. Construction of the basilica, built oer the historical site of the Circus of Nero, began during teh reign of Emperor Constantine I between 318  and 322, and took about 30 years to complete. The name "old St. Peter's Basilica" has been used since the construction of the current basilica to distinguish the two buildings.

Old St. Peter's Basilica

It was of typical basilical form, a wide nave and two aisles on each side and an apsidal end, with the addition of a transept or bema, giving the building the shape of a tau cross. It was over 340 ft(103.5 m) long, and the entrance was preceded by a large colonnaded atrium. This Church had been built over the small shrine believed to mark the burial place of St. Peter. It contained a very large number of buirals and memorials, including those of most of the popes from St. Peter to the 15th century.

St. peter's Basilica Architecture

Maderno's façade

The façade designed by Maderno, is 376.3 ft (114.69 metres)wide and 149.4 ft(45.55 metres) high and is built of travertine stone, with a giant order of Corinthian columns and a central pediment rising in front of a tall attic surmounted by thirteen statues: Christ flanked by eleven of the Apostles (except Peter, whose statue is left of the stairs) and John the Baptist. The inscription below the cornice on the 3.3ft(1 m) tall frieze reads: IN HONOREM PRINCIPIS APOST PAVLVS V BVRGHESIVS ROMANVS PONT MAX AN MDCXII PONT VII (In honour of the Prince of Apostles, Paul V Borghese, a Roman, Supreme Pontiff, in the year 1612, the seventh of his pontificate).

The façade

Narthex and portals

Behind the façade of St. Peter's stretches a long portico or "narthex" such as was occasionally found in Italian Romanesque churches. This is the part of Maderno's design with which he was most satisfied. Its long barrel vault is decorated with ornate stucco and gilt, and successfully illuminated by small windows between pendentives, while the ornate marble floor is beamed with light reflected in from the piazza. At each end of the narthex is a theatrical space framed by ionic columns and within each is set a statue, an equestrian figure of Charlemagne by Cornacchini (18th century) in the south end and Constantine the Great by Bernini (1670) in the north end. 

Narthex

Five portals, of which three are framed by huge salvaged antique columns, lead into the basilica. The central portal has a bronze door created by Antonio Averulino in 1455 for the old basilica and somewhat enlarged to fit the new space.

Narthex and Portals

Maderno's nave

To the single bay of Michelangelo's Greek Cross, Maderno added a further three bays. He made the dimensions slightly different from Michelangelo's bay, thus defining where the two architectural works meet. Maderno also tilted the axis of the nave slightly. This was not by accident, as suggested by his critics. An ancient Egyptian obelisk had been erected in the square outside, but had not been quite aligned with Michelangelo's building, so Maderno compensated, in order that it should, at least, align with the Basilica's façade. 

Maderno's nave

The nave has huge paired pilasters, in keeping with Michelangelo's work. The size of the interior is so "stupendously large" that it is hard to get a sense of scale within the building. The four cherubs who flutter against the first piers of the nave, carrying between them two holy water basins, appear of quite normal cherubic size, until approached. Then it becomes apparent that each one is over 2 metres high and that real children cannot reach the basins unless they scramble up the marble draperies. The aisles each have two smaller chapels and a larger rectangular chapel, the Chapel of the Sacrament and the Choir Chapel. These are lavishly decorated with marble, stucco, gilt, sculpture and mosaic. Remarkably, there are very few paintings, although some, such as Raphael's "Sistine Madonna" have been reproduced in mosaic. The most precious painting is a small icon of the Madonna, removed from the old basilica. 

Sistine Madonna

Maderno's last work at St. Peter's was to design a crypt-like space or "Confessio" under the dome, where the cardinals and other privileged persons could descend in order to be nearer to the burial place of the apostle. Its marble steps are remnants of the old basilica and around its balustrade are 95 bronze lamps.

"Confessio"

For more information visit:

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Vatican State