Description

Essentials about St. Peter’s Basilica in brief

Some sights in the world should be seen once in a lifetime – among them is definitely St. Peter’s Basilica (and this is true not only for Catholic Christians). The “Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican”, as the church is called with its full name, is namely one of the most important, beautiful and impressive houses of worship in the world. It is the focal point of the Vatican City State, the largest of the four papal basilicas in Rome, and one of the seven pilgrimage churches of the Eternal City. However, to anticipate a misconception right at the start: St. Peter’s Basilica is not the cathedral of the diocese of Rome – this is the Lateran Basilica.

The history of St. Peter’s Basilica

The Peter Tomb

The history of St. Peter’s Basilica dates back to the 1st century AD, when Emperor Caligula had a circus built on the Vatican Hill on the western side of the Tiber outside the then urban area of ancient Rome. According to tradition, the Apostle Peter was crucified upside down in the Circus in the fall of 64 and found his final resting place here. Excavations commissioned by Pope Pius XII around 1950 uncovered a burial street under St. Peter’s Basilica. In the cemetery, which was filled in at the beginning of the 4th century, the excavations uncovered numerous burial houses with stucco, wall paintings, mosaics and isolated Christian tombs.

Bones were also found in the presumed tomb of St. Peter, although not in the ground but in a retaining wall on the side. The theory that the bones were kept in a loggia covered with Peter’s graffiti in the Catacombs of San Sebastiano during the last severe persecutions and were buried in the wall only by Emperor Constantine still fails to convince many critics today. While the question of Peter’s bones must therefore remain open, since the excavations it can be considered certain that at least at the beginning of the 4th century the venerated site was regarded as Peter’s tomb. Incidentally, today’s dome of St. Peter’s Basilica is located exactly above this tomb.

The first basilica

Based on the excavation findings, it can be assumed that after the so-called Edict of Toleration of Milan in 313, Christians showed Emperor Constantine the tomb, which had been venerated from time immemorial as the tomb of Peter. He therefore had a basilica built on the Vatican Hill around 324. In order to obtain a level building site for a monumental basilica on the hillside, Constantine had the tombs below the venerated tomb filled in and the hill behind the tomb removed, so that finally only the tomb alone stood in the apse of the future church, clad in precious marble and roofed with a ciborium.

The five-nave basilica with a single-nave transept was consecrated by Pope Silvester I in 326. It had enormous dimensions for its time, with a total length of about 120 meters, a transept 63 meters long and a central nave 30 meters high. In 468, at the instigation of Pope Simplicius, the apse was rebuilt to allow Eucharist to be celebrated not only at the tomb itself, but also for a larger crowd above it on a raised altar island. Since the tomb was still to be circumambulated, a corridor was built under the new raised altar space, which became the archetype of the crypt. In the following centuries, the building was severely damaged by the turmoil of history and numerous warlike events. Especially during the Saracen attack on Rome in 846, many art treasures were lost through looting. However, the church was restored again and again.

The idea for the new building of St. Peter’s Basilica

In the middle of the 15th century, under Nicholas V, due to increased space requirements, there were efforts to significantly enlarge the choir room of the old St. Peter’s Church, which had become dilapidated over the period of the popes’ absence. At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Julius II found that the approximately 1200-year-old church on the hill known for its plague of mosquitoes would not provide adequate space for his monumental tomb. He therefore commissioned an extension of the building. However, since it was in danger of collapsing in many places, it was decided to build a monumental new building instead.

The cost-intensive new building was decisively financed by the so-called St. Peter’s pence and the sale of indulgences. The discussion about this method of financing later became one of the starting points of the demand for reformation. Later on, the construction was also financed by Spain, which donated part of the treasures captured in the newly discovered America.

Bramante’s first draft of St. Peter’s Basilica

In 1503 finally began the more than 120-year building history of St. Peter’s, which was marked by many changes of plans and architects. One began to demolish Old Saint Peter from the west. Only the old apse with St. Peter’s tomb and the eastern half of the nave remained standing. On April 18, 1506, Julius II laid the foundation stone for the new St. Peter’s Church below the later Veronica pillar. The first design of the new building came from Donato Bramante, who was the construction manager of the ambitious project until his death in 1514. Bramante obsessively kept developing new plans, but not every revision of them has survived. For centuries it has been disputed whether Bramante originally had a – very antique-looking – central building in mind and only later a cross ground plan, or whether he immediately developed a mixed form.

The construction under changing architects

After Bramante’s death, there was a series of changes among the architects. From 1514 onwards, Raphael, Bramante’s intended successor, Giuliano da Sangallo and Frá Giovanni Giocondo first took over the duties of construction manager. The latter two left the site only a year later. Raphael then appointed Giuliano da Sangallo’s nephew, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, as the second architect. The latter took over the function of first master builder after Raphael’s early death (1520). He appointed Baldassare Peruzzi as second architect, who held this post until his death (1536). In the designs of these architects, the basic form repeatedly alternated between Greek and Latin crosses.

The construction itself progressed only sluggishly. Evidence of this period are the barrel-vaulted arches between the southern crossing and counter piers, which Raphael designed. Sangallo the Younger raised the level of the floor and worked on a large model of his last St. Peter’s Basilica design in the last years of his life until his death in 1547. It can be seen today in one of the roof domes of the basilica.

The construction under Michelangelo and his successors

In 1547 Michelangelo Buonarroti took over the construction management. His plans were based on the architecture of Bramante. He designed a central building with four apses, the ground plan of which can still be found today in the western part of the basilica. The characteristic pilaster arrangement of the facades of the west building and the monumental ribbed dome also go back to him. He did not live to see the completion of the dome. When he died in 1564, work on the tambour had already begun. However, his successors Pirro Ligorio (until 1568), Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (from 1568) and Giacomo della Porta (from 1574) continued to build according to his plans, modifying them only slightly. Under Vignola and della Porta, the long building in the form of a Latin cross finally prevailed over the central building among the master builders. The latter completed the main dome in 1591 and erected the two pavilion-like secondary domes.

The construction under Maderno

When Paul V ascended the papal throne in 1605, the construction had progressed so far that it adjoined the still standing parts of the nave of Old St. Peter. At that time, the discussion again flourished whether to demolish this old part or to integrate it into the new St. Peter’s; in the end, it was decided to demolish it. During this period, several designs for a new building were made, of which the one by Carlo Maderno, who was chief architect from 1603 to 1629, was executed. Under him, the nave with its chapels, the Confessio, the portico and the monumental Baroque façade with its almost 115 meters wide and 45 meters high were built. It was criticized by contemporaries for its dimensions, as it obscures the view of Michelangelo’s dome from St. Peter’s Square. A bell tower was planned to the left and right of the facade. However, they were not completed and only reach the height of the facade, so that they seem to merge with it. In the left tower there is the present bell tower.

The construction under Bernini

Since the papal altar was lost in the crossing under the enormous dome, and in order to direct the gaze toward the tomb of Peter, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, with the assistance of Francesco Borromini, erected a bronze canopy with an attached cross on four 29-meter-high winding columns directly above the tomb in 1624. The material for it came from the Pantheon. For the casting, Pope Urban VIII. Barberini remove the ancient bronze coffers from the ceiling of the pronaos, which had been preserved until 1625. In the same year the columns were erected, the entire work could not be completed until 1635.

The consecration and completion of St Peter’s Basilica

In 1626, construction was completed to the point that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre could be solemnly consecrated by Pope Urban VIII on November 18. In 1637 Bernini, who had assumed the position of chief architect after Maderno’s death (1629), was commissioned by the pope to complete the bell towers. However, his designs for the foundations were too heavy, so that cracks appeared in the façade and the south tower, which had already been started, had to be taken down to its original height in 1641. Bernini turned his attention to the artistic decoration of the basilica and the construction of the colonnades in St. Peter’s Square.

The architecture of St. Peter’s Basilica

When it was inaugurated, St. Peter’s Basilica was one of the largest church buildings in the world. With its 15,160 square meters of interior space, the cathedral has the world’s largest built-over interior, with room for up to 20,000 people. The dome, which can be reached via 537 steps, is still considered the largest cantilevered structure in the world.

The interior, with its total of 800 columns, 390 statues and 45 altars made of Roman travertine, Carrara marble, bronze and stucco, houses numerous art treasures of inestimable value. The proportions of the interior give the visitor the impression of being greatly diminished by the oversized design of the statues, columns, paintings and altars. To this day, the pope celebrates all his masses in this house of worship, for which thousands of believers from all over the world gather in the cathedral and in St. Peter’s Square in front of it.

The interior of St. Peter’s Basilica

General information

A detailed description of the interior of St. Peter’s Basilica would go beyond any scope – there are even separate guidebooks for this. Therefore, only a few of the highlights should be described here.

The main dome

Among the highlights is definitely the grandiose, double-shelled and 16-cornered main dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, which dates back to plans by Michelangelo. It was completed in 1591 as the largest cantilevered brick structure in the world. The dome is 42.34 meters in diameter and, together with the tambour on which it stands, 43.20 meters high (the Pantheon is 86 centimeters wider, but lower). The large-sized windows located between the tambour pillars provide good illumination of the crossing. Together with the 17-meter-high lantern, the total height is 136 meters. The dome has served as a model for many other structures in the Western world, including St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Invalides Cathedral in Paris, and the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The lantern of the dome can be reached by more than 510 steps, but these can be shortened by taking an elevator to the roof terrace (in which case there are only 320 steps). It offers a magnificent panoramic view of the Vatican Hill, St. Peter’s Square and the surrounding Rome. Already the way up is a fantastic impression. Here you can take a close look at the decoration of the dome, but you can also look down and really realize the enormous dimensions of the building.

The Pope’s Altar and the Bernini Canopy

Directly below the dome, the crossing, together with the papal altar, forms the liturgical center of the basilica. Here already stood the high altar of Old St. Peter. Under the papal altar, which is located under the ciborium by Bernini, lies the presumed tomb of St. Peter. Bernini’s canopy is supported by sinuous columns, decorated in the upper part with olive foliage and crowned by composite capitals. Above the columns, at the corners of the canopy, are depicted standing angels who, with the ribbons they hold in their hands, stretch the canopy cloth, at the bottom of which is a representation of the Holy Ghost dove.

Volutes rise behind the angels, ending together in a console. On this is a golden cross standing on a sphere, which forms the top of the canopy at a height of 28 meters. Originally, Bernini planned a figure of the risen Christ in this place, but it proved to be too heavy. On the canopy cloth the artist had putti depicted playing with the insignia of the princes of the apostles, tiara, key, book and sword. For the casting of the canopy, Pope Urban VIII, from the Barberini family, had the ancient ceiling of the portico of the Pantheon melted down. This caused indignation among the inhabitants of Rome and so the saying “Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini” (“What the barbarians did not manage to do, the Baberini managed to do”) was born at that time.

The Chapels and Michelangelo’s Pietà

Also very worth seeing are the many chapels of St. Peter’s Basilica. In the easternmost chapel of the north aisle, visitors can admire one of the most beautiful sculptures in the history of art, Michelangelo’s Pietà. The Pietà, set in front of a plain cross, has been secured with bulletproof glass since an assassination attempt in 1972 that severely damaged the figure. Those who want to study every detail of Michelangelo’s masterpiece up close can do so in the sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica (to the left of the altar) and in the Vatican Museums, where replicas stand.

Another beautiful chapel is that of St. Sebastian. The altar of the central chapel of the north aisle shows the chapel’s patron shortly before his martyrdom. He is tied to a pole to which is attached a shield with the inscription SEBASTIANVS/CHRISTIANVS. Above the saint is depicted Christ, to whom he looks up. An angel presents the saint with the signs of a martyr, crown and palm branch. Under the altar, since his beatification, St. Pope John Paul II has found his final resting place. In the chapel there are also the tombs of Popes Pius XI and Pius XII.

And two other chapels in St. Peter’s Basilica are of particular beauty. One is the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, the westernmost chapel of the north aisle, on whose altar is Bernini’s gilded bronze tabernacle. Anyone standing in the chapel should be sure to look up at the domed mosaic depicting the vision of the last of the seven seals. Second is the Baptistery, the easternmost chapel in the south aisle. In its center is the baptismal fountain, which was once an ancient porphyry sarcophagus from Hadrian’s Mausoleum. The altarpiece behind the baptismal fountain depicts the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. Here, too, the dome is worth a look, with mosaics around Jesus and God the Father depicting three types of baptism, by water, blood and by desire.

The Vatican Grottos

If you are more interested in tombs, you should descend the narrow stairs into the Vatican Grottoes. This is a crypt under the famous St. Peter’s Basilica. In these spacious rooms you can find the tombs of 23 popes. But not only churchmen, but also two queens have been buried here: Christina of Sweden and the English titular queen Maria Clementina Stuart.

Still a little way below the Vatican Grottoes is the necropolis of St. Peter’s Basilica, the ancient burial ground described above, where the tomb of the Apostle Peter is believed to be located. Guided tours are offered to visitors, but they require a permit, which is granted only after prior written application. In order not to damage the excavations, only a limited number of visitors are allowed for these tours every day. For interested Christians, however, the effort is definitely worth it.

The Treasury

And last but not least, the Treasury of St. Peter’s Basilica is recommended to all those interested in art. It is part of the sacristy and is arranged in the form of a museum. Here is exhibited the church treasure consisting of numerous precious exhibits. These are various clerical treasures, but also gifts from kings and princes. In addition to liturgical vestments, papal tiaras and ritual objects, there are also gold or silver candlesticks and richly decorated church furniture.

Of great importance for the church are the numerous tombs and statues of famous saints and clergymen, mainly popes. A real work of art is the tomb slab of the tomb of Pope Sixtus IV from 1493, decorated with the educational canon of the Renaissance, while the marble sarcophagus of the converted prefect Iunius Bassus was made just as artistically. Also worth seeing are the Carolingian ivory throne, the replica of the chair of St. Peter the Apostle and the Holy Column of the Constantinian Basilica from the 4th century.

Website

vaticanstate.va/basilica-di-s-pietro

Opening hours

Opening hours Basilica:

Apr. – Sep.: Daily 7 am – 7 pm

Oct. – Mar.: Daily 7 am – 6 pm

Opening hours Dome:

Apr. – Sep.: Daily 8 am – 6 pm

Oct. – Mar.: Daily 8 am – 5 pm

Opening hours Treasury:

Apr. – Sep.: Daily 9 am – 6:15 pm

Oct. – Mar.: Daily 9 am – 5:15 pm

Opening hours Grottos:

Apr. – Sep.: Daily 7 am – 6 pm

Oct. – Mar.: Daily 7 am – 5 pm

Opening hours Necropolis:

The Necropolis can only be visited as part of a guided tour. Tour times are set by the Vatican. Visitors have to register by telephone (+39 06 69873017) or by e-Mail (scavi@fsp.va) and provide their name, the number of persons, the desired day of the visit and thedesired language of the tour.

Admission fees

Basilica:

Free.

Dome:

€6.00 (Stairs) or €8.00 (Elevator)

Treasury:

€5.00

Grottos:

Free

Necropolis:

€13.00

Address

Getting there

By public transport:

Metro line A: Stop Ottaviano S. Pietro

Tram line 19: Stop Risorgimento – San Pietro

Bus line 590: Stop Risorgimento

Bus lines 23, 982 and n3s: Stop Risorgimento/Porta Angelica

Bus lines 23, 49, 492, 982, 990 and n3d: Stop Crescenzio/Risorgimento

Bus lines 34, 46, 64, 98, 190F, 881, 916, 916F, 982, n46, n98 and n904: Stop Cavalleggeri/S. Pietro

By car:

The nearest parking garage is Parking Prati.