Saint Peter’s Basilica

I

Introduction

Saint Peter’s Basilica, the principal church of Roman Catholicism, located in Vatican City within Rome, Italy. The church is a shrine to Saint Peter, who was the first bishop of Rome and thus the first pope. According to tradition it is built over Saint Peter’s grave. An earlier church, built in the 4th century ad, once stood in its place. The church that stands today remains a place of pilgrimage and a spiritual center of Christianity.

Saint Peter’s is the most visited church in the world and was long the largest church, covering an area of 15,160.12 sq m (163,182.2 sq ft). It can hold more than 60,000 people. The building was surpassed in size in 1989 by Our Lady of Peace, a church modeled after Saint Peter’s in Yamoussoukro, the capital of Côte d’Ivoire. Despite its size and importance, Saint Peter’s is not the cathedral of Rome—that is, the pope’s church. That status belongs to the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.

The construction of the current Saint Peter’s spanned more than a century and engaged the talents of some of the finest architects of the Renaissance and baroque periods. Construction began under Pope Julius II in 1506 and was completed in 1626 under Pope Urban VIII. Julius II chose Renaissance architect Donato Bramante to design the church. After his death a number of architects were commissioned to complete it, including Raphael, members of the Sangallo family, Michelangelo, and Carlo Maderno.

II

Inside Saint Peter’s

The interior of Saint Peter’s is filled with many Renaissance and baroque masterpieces. Among the most famous is the Pietà (1497-1500), a sculpture by the young Michelangelo that depicts the Virgin Mary holding the dead Christ in her lap. The sculpture is now housed behind a glass screen following an attack by a vandal in 1972. A bronze statue of Saint Peter seated on his throne, attributed to 13^th-century sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio, is one of the most venerated objects in Saint Peter’s. Christian pilgrims traditionally rub or kiss the big toe on the statue’s outstretched foot. The church’s imposing dome, designed by Michelangelo, rises over the high altar and the tomb of Saint Peter.

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The centerpiece of the church is the baldachin, a canopy over the high altar. Designed by baroque sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, it stands 26 m (85 ft) high. Four spiral columns, twined with vines, support the baldachin, and statues of angels stand on top of the columns. Behind the altar is the Chair of Saint Peter, an enormous work of gilt bronze also created by Bernini. Statues of the four Fathers of the Church hold the chair aloft. Light enters from behind the chair through a window of golden alabaster; a dove at the center of the window represents the Holy Spirit.

Saint Peter’s and its crypt house the tombs of many popes. Statues of saints fill niches in the walls and supporting piers (rectangular pillars) of the nave and aisles adjoining the nave. Chapels line the outer walls of the aisles. A barrel vault covers the nave, and small domes cover the bays of the aisles.

III

Outside Saint Peter’s

The high, wide front of Saint Peter’s was completed in the baroque style late in the building’s construction. It features a row of gigantic Corinthian attached columns; niches, doors, and windows fill the spaces in between. At the center of the façade, four columns, topped by a triangular pediment, take the shape of a Roman triumphal arch. The pope offers his blessing from a central balcony above the main doorway to the church. Statues of Christ and the apostles stand atop the facade.

In front of Saint Peter’s is a large public space where worshipers gather on Easter and other feast days to receive the pope’s blessing. Bernini designed this space in the mid-1600s, after the church’s completion. A rectangular area right in front of the church opens onto a wide oval plaza known as the Piazza San Pietro (Saint Peter’s Square). The oval plaza is embraced on two sides by curving colonnades (covered, columned walkways), which are intended to represent the welcoming arms of the Christian Church. An ancient Egyptian obelisk, brought to Rome in the 1st century ad, stands in the middle of the plaza, with two fountains off to the sides.

IV

History of Saint Peter’s Basilica

Saint Peter’s replaced an earlier church on this site begun by Roman emperor Constantine in the 4th century ad. That church had a floor plan in the form of a cross, and like other basilicas, had a central nave and side aisles. The old Saint Peter’s, the church in which Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman emperor in the year 800, remained standing until the mid-15th century. By then it had decayed from age and neglect. Along with other churches in Rome, it had been especially neglected during the Great Schism of the 14th century, when the papacy moved to Avignon in France.

After the papacy had returned to Rome, Pope Nicholas V decided in the mid-1400s to build a new church to replace the old Saint Peter’s. He appointed Italian architect Bernardo Rossellini as the architect for the new building. Rossellini tore down part of the old church but got little farther before Nicholas died in 1455. The project then came to a halt. It was taken up again by Pope Julius II in the early 1500s.

Construction of the church we know today began under Julius, who had ambitious plans for restoring the grandeur of Rome. He decided to demolish the old church and invited Bramante to design the new church. Bramante’s design called for a symmetrical church in the shape of a Greek cross—a cross with four arms of equal length. On April 28, 1506, Julius laid the cornerstone for the new church. Many changes and many architects followed after the death of Julius in 1513 and Bramante in 1514. Sharp disputes arose over whether the church should retain the form of a Greek cross or take the shape of a Latin cross with an extended eastern arm.

In 1546 Pope Paul III urged Michelangelo to take over supervision of Saint Peter’s. Michelangelo was then 71, and though reluctant at first to take on the project because of his age, he devoted the next 17 years to it. Michelangelo returned to Bramante’s plan for a Greek cross, and he simplified and unified the design. He also strengthened the piers that would support the enormous dome that he designed for the church. At his death only the drum of the dome had been built. The dome was completed by architect Giacomo della Porta.

Carlo Maderno completed the rest of Saint Peter’s. When the building was nearly finished, Pope Paul V decided it should have the shape of a Latin cross, and Maderno lengthened the nave to the east. Maderno also designed the facade of the church. Pope Urban VIII dedicated the Basilica of Saint Peter’s on November 18, 1626. Saint Peter’s was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984.

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