Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-03-27
A Great Cathedral.

remember well, when child, hear
ing the Cathedral of ST. Peter, in Rome,
spoken of as being so immense that I
thought of an ideal cathedral little less
than a mountain in size, and the dome
to be seen only as if looking at the
stars. When the real cathedral was
seen, of course that exaggerated idea
had then been long tempered to some
thing like the reality. Yet it was not
without certain pleasure to find that
to get good view, particularly of the
dome, it was necessary for me to go
from it several miles-to the Pincian
hill, or terrace of the beautiful Villa
Doria- Pamfili. The latter view is one
of the finest, as nothing else of all Rome
is seen. . The cathedral stands on the
site of Nero's Circus, where many
Christians were martyred, and where
the Apostle Peter is said to have been
buried after his crucitixion. In the
year 80 an oratory was built there, and
in 306 Emperor Constantine erected a
church. 1t was the grandest of that
time, and exceeded in size all existing
cathedrals except two, yet was only
half the size of the present building.
This cathedral was begun in 1906,
and after forty years all the foundations
W6T6 uOb UullU 4uCA N1lCHdCl AuSOlO,
though seventy-two years old; was per-
suaded to be the architect. His prede-
cessor had wasted four years in making
model of the proposed edifce, at a
great cost, but he, with marvellous
energy, completed his model in fort
night. Though the work wens rapidly
on, he knew he could not live to see his
cathedral finished, and he patiently
made wooden model of the great
dome of exact proportions. From this
mooel his idea was carried out.
Twenty Popes came and went.
pressing the work to completion;
eighteen architects planned and
replanned, and expended 100000,
900, brought from the four quarters OF
the globe; and hundred and fifty years
rolled around before ST. Peters was
finished. Sixtus V. employed six hun
dred men, night and day, ceaselessly at
work upon the dome.
The cathedral was consecrated on the
18th of November, 1926, the thirteen
hundredth anniversary of a similar rite
in the first cathedral. 1t covers 212,.
321 square feet of ground, nearly twice
the area of the next largest cathedral
that of Milan, which is a little larger
than St. Paurs, of London. Its length
is about equal to two ordinary city
blocks, its width to that of a shor1
block. and its total height that of {
long block, or little less than the
height of the great pyramid of Egypt
The circumference of the base of the
dome is such that 200 ten year old boy:
and girls clasped hand to hand would
Just about stretch around it. The dom'
rests upon four buttresses, each sevent,
feet thick, and above them runs friez
carved in letters as high as a man
Then, one above another, are fo0r gal
leries, from the lower one of which
fine view of the inside of the church ca,
be had.
The little black things seen crawl
ing on the pavement away down be
low are grown men and women. Th
whole inside of the dome is of MOSAIC
work, and set in this are mosaics of tn
evangelists-colossal figures, you ma
know, as the pen which st. Luke hold
is seven feet long.
The roof of the cathedral is reache
, by means OF an easy slope, up whic
, one could ride on a donkey. Emerg
ing on the roof, all Rome is seen, tn
country from the mountains, and th
blue Mediterranean Sea in the distances
} The roof holds number of sma
l demes, and dwellings for the workme
) and custodians, who live thel
3 with their families. But strange
still is fountain fed from Il
, rain caught upon the roof. Thel