St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square ( , ) is a large plaza in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome. The Pope frequently addresses pilgrims gathered in the square. It is named after Saint Peter.

At the centre of the square is an ancient Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1586. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years laterWilliam Tronzo, ed., St. Peter's in the Vatican, Cambridge University Press, 2005, page 149.Franco Mormondo, Bernini: His Life and His Rome, University of Chicago Press, 2011, page 203. A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613.


References

Further reading
 Hibbert, Christopher, 1985, Rome: The biography of a city, London, Penguin.
 Norwich, John Julius, ed. 1975 Great Architecture of the World 
 Touring Club Italiano, Roma e Dintorni

Other websites

stpetersbasilica.info Pages for all 140 Colonnade Saints
Great Buildings On-line: Piazza of St. Peter's
Roberto Piperno, "Piazza di S. Pietro": engravings by Vasi
Mary Ann Sullivan, "St Peter's Piazza, Vatican City"
Obeliscus Vaticanus LacusCurtius.com, The Vatican Obelisk, retrieved September 4, 2006
The legend of the cry of Bresca Legendary Rome
Rome, Nova Online, Mysteries of the Nile, A World of Obelisks: Rome pbs.org, retrieved September 4, 2006
St. Peter's Square, Bernini's Fountain

Category:Buildings and structures in Vatican City
Category:National squares
Category:Town squares in Europe