The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-08

and chisel. The lecture concluded with a
description of a visit to St Peters at Rome,
the dome of which was designed by this remark
able mar when he was eighty-seven years old,
as follows:
Crossing the Tiber on a magnificent bridge.
under whose arches the yellow flood has rolled
since ancient times. and over which have passed
tue gorgeous paSeantrleS OF modern Rome, we
pass the castle of st. Angelo, its bronze angel
kissing the clouds, and soon come into the spa
cious Piazza San Pietro, or square of st. Peters.
On either side, sweeping in Il broad semi-circu-
lar curve towards the great ediiice as though
they would gather the nations within the sacred
building, are magnificent colonnades with quad
ripple rows of lofty Doric columns. In the cen
ter of the piazza rises an obelisk which once
stood before the Temple of the Sun in Heliopo-
lis, while on either side immense fountains wave
their white spray to the sunlight. In this spa
cious piazza gather the pilgrims of the Catholic
world TO receive from the Pope the
papal benediction, The great church
with its broad and inviting approach.
The facade rises like the front of a temple not
planned by man or made with hands, while over
all is seen the lofty dome, symbol of the heavens
out of which it seems to have descended. We
ascend the spacious steps and enter the vesti-
bute, where marble statues, rich ~ffescoes and
wondrous doors of bronze give grand suggestion
OF the magni6cence within. We push aside the
1~Nf y O%A NttiA ~ hAC NOglf tbAA u 10y 0O
lsayl At the first glance yeu~are arrested by
the magnihcence that bursts Respondent on your
gaze. You stand entranced, Were it
not idolatry you would fall down and
Worship, Standing there, your feet are on
that round slab of pofphyry ON which the
'emperots were formerly crowned. We advance
along that spacious nave, empaneled with rarest
and richest marbles, hung with gorgeous tapes
tries, adorned with choicest statuary; on either.
side rising pillars and columns supporting lofty
arches through which are seen chapels, tombs
and affairs of surprising s%plendor: and over all,
loo feet above that mosaic floor, the richly
eotIered ceiling 1t seems as if the round world
had been searched for treasure with which to
enrich this marvellous pile. And here are mag
nificent pictures, so wondrously executed that
they hold you in their contemplation, until your
admiration becomes establishment when you
find that these are all wrought with
almost superhuman skill and inf
mite patience in mosaic-every feature,
even to the eyebrows, accurately portrayed.
But we are now beneath the great dome,
where we look up through 405 feet Of glorious
sun-mist to its vaulted ceiling. Around the frieze
or rim, in mosaic letters, each six feet long, runs
the legend in Latin: ''Thou art Peter, and upon
this rock | will build my church, and to thee 1
give the keys of the kingdom of heaven The
dome is divided into sections by ribs covered
with gilded stuceo, Here we see four series of
colossal mosaic p~ietures-more than two acres of
mosaics. Around the lower part run scenes in
the life of Christ. Above these are seen scenes
- NtN AAC u tiO ' bIACh q COLlOo CD1NotltL
ing the apostles, while away on the lofty ceiling.
as if looking out from the heaven, is seen God
the Father. But let us make the ascent of this
dome. We climb 142 steps, winding
the walls of which bear memorial
tablets of royal personageS who have gone before
US, and we come out upon the immense roof of
the church. Here is a village of small domes
and houses of the workmen who are continually
busy upon the great structure. Families dwell
up there and children are born and die there.
From the roof we obtain a magnificent view of
Rome and the classic Alban and Sabine hills be-
You'd, But on we go, for there are 308 feet of climb
ing yet before we reach the summit of the dome,
and we must yet reach the 440th step before we
can rest ourselves at the lantern, and there then
will be over us the immense copper ball in which
sixteen persons may be seated. 1t seems as if we
are ascending to the very skies. Here a grand
and startling view is obtained of the interior of
both the dome and the church. You shrink back
as you look far down to the marble
floor, where affairs and ehapels seem as
toys, and men as children. Voices are hushed
down there. The chanting of the priests and
the music of the organ seem far away. Beneath
us IS the great altar covered with its imposing
canopy of bronze of nearly one hundred tons
weight, And there is the reputed tomb of
st. Peter, before which burn, with never expiring
fame, eighty-nine lamps.
'And now, if we descend from our perilous
height, and examine the fourmassive buttresses, /
which support this dome. we shall find that there
might " iiu iIoltlc VI llileI 81 CuuIGl HIJy-GlSHJ |
feet square, with a steeple one hundred feet
high. Within that dome could be placed the far
famed Trinity Church, of New York, with its
towering spire. Twenty average-sized churches
could be piled in the nave of st. Peters, and all
their steeples packed away in its dome; while
along the magnificent cornice, which ex-
tends around the great nave, a span of
horses and a carriage might be driven.
In that nave could rest a vessel the size of
Noahs ark, with room at the end for d church
ninety feet long. Beneath that roof are nearly
six acres of surface; and on those floors "a, 600
people can assemble. Once upon a time a regi-
ment of soldiers, numbering GOO, went there
to worship and their commander went in search
of them; he was on the point of leaving without
finding them when they came fling out of the
church. "Such is st. Peters, the erection of
which taxed the skill of nearly q dozen of the
greatest architects the world has seen, and re-
qaired the patronage of nearly a score of popes,
and has cost a hundred million of dollars"
The next lecture to be delivered by DR.. Ala
baster at the same place and for the same cause
will be Raphael and His Masterpiece" on the
evening of May 21
mr. CnmNy ~