St. Peter's Basilica

'''St. Peter's Basilica''', which is called "Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano" in Italian, is a large church in Vatican City, an independent country within Rome, Italy. It is often called “the greatest church in Christendom". In Catholic tradition, St. Peter's Basilica is believed to be the burial place of Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. It is believed that Saint Peter was the first Bishop of Rome.

Although the Bible does not say that the apostle Peter went to Rome, other Roman Christians who were alive in the 1st century AD have written about him. Catholics believe that after Peter was killed, his body was buried in a cemetery where the basilica now stands. A tomb has been found below the altar of the basilica, and there were some bones, but no-one can say for certain if they are the bones of St. Peter.

A church was built here in the 4th century AD. The building that stands here now was begun on April 18, 1506 and was finished in 1626. Many Popes have been buried there. Although many people think St. Peter's is a cathedral, it is not, because it does not have a bishop. The pope is the Bishop of Rome, and although he usually uses St. Peter's as his main church, because he lives in the Vatican, his bishop's throne is in a different church, the cathedral of *Saint John Lateran*. Large important churches like St. Peter's are often called basilicas. There are four ancient basilicas in Rome that were begun by the Emperor Constantine soon after he made Christianity the legal religion of the Roman Empire in the early 4th century AD (300s). The basilicas are ''St. Peter's Basilica*, *St. John Lateran*, *Santa Maria Maggiore* and *St. Paul outside the Walls''.

St. Peter's is famous for many reasons:
* The pope, who lives at the Vatican, often says mass at St. Peter's.
* Many people go there on pilgrimage.
* It is said to be the greatest work of architecture of its age. It covers an area of 2.3&nbsp;hectares (5.7&nbsp;acres) and can hold over 60,000 people.

## History 
### Burial place of St. Peter 
One of the books of the Bible, called the Acts of the Apostles, tells what happened to the disciples of Jesus after he was put to death by crucifixion in the 1st century AD. One of his twelve disciples became the leader. His name was Simon Peter and he was a fisherman from Galilee. Peter became one of the most important people in starting the Christian Church. Another important disciple was Paul of Tarsus, who travelled to many places and wrote lots of letters to teach and to encourage people in the new Christian groups that began to spring up in many different parts of the Roman Empire. St. Paul travelled to Rome. It is believed that St. Peter also travelled to Rome and that both Paul and Peter were put to death there as Christian martyrs. St. Paul was beheaded with a sword. Peter was crucified up-side-down. It is believed that the body of St. Peter was buried in a cemetery near the Via Cornelia, a road leading out of the city, on the hill called Vaticanus. Peter's grave was marked, by a red rock, the symbol of his name. The place where Peter died was marked, in the 1400s, by a little round temple called the "Tempietto" designed by Bramante.

St. Peter is very important in Roman Catholic tradition because Peter is believed to have been the head of the Christian Church in Rome, and so he was the first bishop. The Gospel of Matthew (chapter 16, verse 18) tells that Jesus said these words to Peter:
:*"And I also say this to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church."*

The name Peter means a "rock". The Roman Catholic Church believes that Jesus made Peter the head of the Christian Church, and so all the Bishops of Rome (the Popes) must be the leaders of the Christian Church throughout the whole world. The Protestant and Orthodox churches believe that Jesus was speaking about the important words Peter had just said: *"You are the Christ and the Son of the Living God"* (Matthew 16:16), and that this *Confession of Faith* is the rock that the Christian Church is built on.

On December 23, 1950, while making his Christmas radio broadcast to the world, Pope Pius XII announced that Saint Peter's tomb had been discovered. Archaeologists had been searching for ten years in a place under the basilica that had been covered up for about a thousand years. They had found part of a small building dating from soon after St. Peter's death, and some bones, but no-one could be sure if they were the bones of St. Peter.

### Old St. Peter's 
St. Peter's Basilica, as it stand today, was begun in 1506. The first basilica, which is now called "Old St. Peter's Basilica" was begun by the Emperor Constantine between 326 and 333 AD. This was a big wide church in the shape of a Latin Cross, over 103.6 metres (350 feet) long. The central part called the "nave" had two aisles on either side, separated by rows of talls Roman columns. In front of the main entrance was large courtyard with a covered walkway all around. This church had been built over a small "shrine" (little chapel) believed to mark the burial place of St. Peter. The old basilica contained a very large number of tombs and memorials, including those of most of the popes from St. Peter to the 15th century.

### The plan to rebuild 
By the end of the 15th century (1400s), the old basilica was falling to pieces. Pope Nicholas V, (1447–55), was worried about it and got two architects, Leone Battista Alberti and Bernardo Rossellino, to make plans to restore it or build a new one. But Pope Nicholas had so many political problems that when he died, very little of the work had been done.
In 1505, Pope Julius II decided to *demolish* (pull down) the old St. Peter's and build a basilica that would be the grandest church in the world and make Rome (and himself) famous. the design by Donato Bramante was chosen, and Pope Julius laid the foundation stone in 1506. Bramante's plan was in the shape of an enormous Greek Cross, which means that it had four arms all of equal length, and a large dome at the middle. For the next hundred years, the *groundplan* got changed backwards and forwards between a "Greek Cross" like Bramante's plan and a "Latin Cross" like the old basilica, but one thing never changed, and that was the idea of having an enormous dome at the place where the two arms crossed.

At that time, there were only three very large domes in the whole world. One was far away in Constantinople on the church of Hagia Sophia and not many people in Italy had seen it. The other two domes were both very well known. One was the dome on the temple to the Ancient Roman gods, called the Pantheon. The other dome was built in the early 15th century (1400s) on Florence Cathedral by Filippo Brunelleschi. The dome of the Pantheon is 43.3 metres (142.06&nbsp;ft) across and the dome of Florence Cathedral is about 42.1 metres (138&nbsp;ft), but is much taller. Bramante's plan for the dome of St. Peter's was for it to be about as wide as the dome of Florence, and even taller.

No architect with any sense would try to design a dome without first checking out how these other two domes were made. Bramante checked them out. He discovered that the dome of the Pantheon, which had been standing for nearly 1500 years, was made of concrete. So that the concrete wouldn't be too heavy, it was mixed with pumice stone which comes out of a volcano and is full of gas holes so it is very light weight. Bramante learned how to make concrete like the Ancient Romans.

Bramante's dome was to be like the one on the Pantheon. But there was one very big difference between the Pantheon dome and Bramante's design. The Pantheon's dome stands on a round wall like a drum, with only one doorway in it, but Bramante's dome was designed to stand on a drum, which was standing high up on four wide arches. The aches rested on four enormous *piers* (pillars of stone). He had got this idea from Florence Cathedral which had an enormous dome resting on eight big piers. Another idea that Bramante got from Florence Cathedral was the design for the little stone tower which sits on top of the dome and is called the *lantern*.

 made this drawing of the new basilica in 1536. The remains of the old basilica can be seen to the left.]]

#### Raphael, Peruzzi and Sangallo the Younger 
When Pope Julius died in 1513, the next pope, Leo X, called in three architects, Giuliano da Sangallo, Fra Giocondo and Raphael. Sangallo and Fr Giocondo both died in 1515. Raphael made a big change to the plan. Instead of having a Greek Cross, he decided to change the plan to a Latin Cross, which had a long *nave* and *aisles* like the old basilica.

Raphael also died, in his mid-30s, in 1520, before any important changes could be made to the building. The next architect was Peruzzi who like some of the ideas that Raphael had, but did not like the Latin Cross plan. Peruzzi went back to Bramante's Greek Cross plan. But there were so many arguments in the church that the building stopped completely. Then in 1527 Rome was invaded by Emperor Charles V. Peruzzi died in 1536 without his plan being built. But Sangallo's plan never got built, either. The main job that he did was to strengthen Bramante's piers which had begun to crack. He is the main designer of the building as it stands today. Michelangelo died before the job was finished, but by that time, he had got the construction up to a point where other people could get it finished. Michelangelo had already done a lot of work for the popes, carving figures for the tomb of Pope Julius II, painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which took five years, and the enormous fresco the "Last Judgement" on the wall of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo found the popes and the cardinals very difficult to work with. When Pope Paul asked him to be the new architect for St. Peter's, Michelangelo did not want the job. In fact, Pope Paul did not really want Michelangelo. But his first choice, Giulio Romano, died suddenly. Michelangelo told the pope that he would only do the job, if he could do it in whatever way he thought was best.

Michelangelo wrote:
:"I am only doing this for the love of God and to honour of the Apostle."

When Michelangelo took over a building site in 1547, the nave of the old basilica was still standing and in use. There were four of the most enormous piers in the world standing where the western part of the old basilica had been. The building work had stopped for so long that weeds and bushes were growing out between the stones of the unfinished building as if it was a cliff. Michelangelo looked at all the plans that had been drawn by some of the greatest architects and engineers of the 16th century. He knew he could do whatever he liked but he had respect for the other designers, especially Bramante. He knew that he was expected to make a design that would be the symbol of the city of Rome, in the same way as Brunelleschi's dome was the symbol of Florence where Michelangelo had lived as a young man. He went back to the Greek Cross idea and re-drew Bramante's plan, making every part of it much stronger and simpler. It had to be strong enough to support the tallest dome in the world.

Michelangelo was a sculptor. When he was going to carve something, he would start by making a clay model. Michelangelo could imagine the building like a lump of clay. What if the building could be pushed and pulled and squeezed? If you could squeeze the corners in, then other bits would bulge out. If you could put your hands around the whole building and squeeze it, then the dome would bulge upwards. The idea of imagining buildings as bendy and bulgy was a completely new one. But other artists like Gianlorenzo Bernini looked at what Michelangelo did at St. Peter's and used this clever new idea in their own work. This is called the Baroque style.

As it stands today, the *Greek Cross* part of the basilica is Michelangelo's design and the *nave*, which was added later, is by Carlo Maderna. Comparing Michelangelo's plan with Raphael's plan shows that while the outside-line of Raphael's plan has clear square and round shapes, the outside-line in Michelangelo's plan has lots of changes of direction. That is the way it was built. All around the outside of the building are enormous "pilasters" (which are like giant columns stuck on the building). Almost every pilaster is set at a different angle to the next one as if the flat walls had been folded up. Right around the top of the building is a band called the "cornice". A "cornice" is usually quite flat, but because of all the changes of direction, this cornice ripples like a giant piece of ribbon, tied around the outside of the building. The art historian Helen Gardner wrote that it looked as of the whole building was being held together from top to bottom.

The dome of St. Peter's rises to a height of 136.57&nbsp;m (448.06&nbsp;ft) from the floor of the basilica. It is the tallest dome in the world. Its inside diameter is 41.47 metres (136.06&nbsp;ft), just slightly smaller than those of the Pantheon and the Florence Cathedral.

Around the inside of the dome is written in letters 2 metres (6.5&nbsp;ft) high:
TV ES PETRVS ET SVPER HANC PETRAM AEDIFICABO ECCLESIAM MEAM  ET TIBI DABO CLAVES REGNI CAELORVM
("...you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church ... and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven...." Vulgate, .)

### The change of plan 
In 1602 Pope Paul V put Carlo Maderna in charge of the building. On February 18 1606, workmen began to pull down the rest of the old basilica. Some people were very upset. The building committee felt guilty. They decided that the church was the wrong shape, and that they wanted a Latin Cross plan because it was the symbol of the death of Jesus. The statues are made of bronze. They are Saints Ambrose and Augustine for the Church of Rome and Saints Athanasius and John Chrysostum for the Orthodox Church. Above the chair is a window which is made not from glass but thin translucent stone called alabaster. The Dove of the Holy Spirit is in the middle of the window with rays of light spreading out into the basilica through a sculpture of golden clouds and angels. Bernini designed this to look like a window into Heaven. There was a great celebration when the chair was put in place on January 16, 1666. The piazza was designed by Bernini and built between 1656 and 1667. It was not an easy job because the designer had lots of things to think about. Firstly, many people complained that Maderna's *facade* on St. Peter's looked too wide, so Bernini wanted to make it look narrower, not wider. Secondly, in the old square left over from the Old St. Peter's, Pope Sixtus V had a monument set up. This monument was a precious Ancient Egyptian *obelisk* (which is like a tall column, but with four flat sides). From its base to the top of the cross (that the pope had put on top) it was 40 metres (131&nbsp;ft) high, and had been brought to Rome in ancient times. The obelisk really should be at the center of the new square, but it was not in quite the right place, and was very difficult to move without breaking. The third problem was that Maderna had built a fountain to one side of the obelisk, and Bernini needed to make another fountain to match it, otherwise the design would look unbalanced.

## Treasures 
St. Peter's Basilica has many treasures. These include Christian relics, the tombs of popes and many other important people, famous artworks which are mostly sculpture and other interesting things.

File:Vatican Piazza San Pietro Obelisk.jpg|The Egyptian obelisk stands in the centre of the piazza.
File:It.Fontana.del.Carlo.Maderno.1613.03.jpg|The fountains of Maderna and Bernini are lit up at night.
File:Vatican StPaul Statue.jpg|Outside the basilica stand two statues. This is St. Paul.
File:Watykan kolumnada Berniniego detal attyki.JPG|There are many statues on the colonnade and roof.
File:Saint Peter's Basilica 2020 P15 Holy door.jpg|The Holy Door (North door) is opened only for great celebrations.
File:Rome basilica st peter 011c.jpg|No-one knows how old the statue of St. Peter is. Its feet are worn down from people kissing them.
File:Michelangelo's Pieta 5450 cropncleaned.jpg|The *Pietà* by Michelangelo is the most famous artwork in St. Peter's. It shows the Virgin Mary holding the body of her son, Jesus.
File:Reliquienschrein Papst Johannes XXIII - Petersdom.jpg|The body of The Blessed Pope John XXIII can be seen inside his tomb.
File:Divine justice allegory in Saint Peter's Basilica.jpg|There are many sculptured decorations like this angel.
File:Gian Lorenzo Bernini - Dove of the Holy Spirit.JPG|The window of the Holy Spirit designed by Bernini
File:Watykan Bazylika sw Piotra medalion pod kopula.JPG|Many parts of the basilica are decorated with mosaics. This is St. John the Gospel Writer.
File:Basílica de San Pedro, Ciudad del Vaticano, 2022-09-17, DD 18-20 HDR.jpg|The mosaic decoration of this small dome shows the Blessed Virgin Mary in Heaven.
File:DuvaRom.JPG|The Dove of Peace showing the different coloured marbles used to decorate the piers.
File:0 Monument funéraire de Christine de Suède - St-Pierre - Vatican (1).JPG|The tomb of Queen Christina of Sweden, who gave up her throne and became a nun.
File:InocencioXIIc.jpg|The tomb of Pope Innocent XII has the figures of Caring and Justice.
File:Expulsão de átila.jpg|This carved altarpiece shows Attila the Hun being driven out of Rome.
File:Saint Helena.jpg|Four large statues are in the piers near the High Altar. Saint Helena holds the True Cross which she found in Jerusalem.
File:Saint Longinus.jpg|Saint Longinus carries the spear that pierced the side of Jesus.
File:Saint Andreas.jpg|Saint Andrew carries the cross on which he was crucified. His bones are at St. Peter's
File:Saint veronica.jpg|Saint Veronica carries the veil that she used to wipe the face of Jesus, when he was carrying his cross.

## Notes 
## References 
* Hintzen-Bohlen, Brigitte and Sorges, Jurgen. *Rome and the Vatican City*, Konemann, 
* Fletcher, Banister. *A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method*, first published 1896, current edition 2001, Elsevier Science & Technology 
* Hartt, Frederick. *A History of Italian Renaissance Art*. Thames and Hudson (1970) 
* Lees-Milne, James. ''Saint Peter's*, Hamish Hamilton (1967). ISBN
* Gardner, Helen. *Art through the Ages*, 5th edition, Harcourt, Brace and World, inc., 
* Goldscheider, Ludwig. *Michelangelo*, 1964, Phaidon, 
* Pevsner, Nikolaus *An Outline of European Architecture*, Pelican, 1964, 
* Pinto, Pio V. *The Pilgrim's Guide to Rome'', Harper and Row, (1974), 

## Other websites 
* stpetersbasilica.org Largest online site for the Basilica
* Fullscreen Virtual Tour by Virtualsweden 
* Google Maps Satellite image of the Basilica
* St Peter’s Basilica and St Peter’s Tomb
* Circus of Nero and the old and new Basilicas superimposed, showing the tomb of Peter
* St. Peter's Basilica Photo Gallery  249 photos
* St Peter's Basilica, Rome pictures and virtual reality movies
* Basilica of St Peter, Rome by Activitaly
* Catholic Encyclopedia Catholic Encyclopedia article
* Vatican City, Piazza San Pietro  VR panorama with map and compass effect by Tolomeus
* The pipe organs of St Peter's Basilica 
* Vatican City, Piazza San Pietro  QTVR panorama hi-res (15 Mb) by Tolomeus
* St. Peter's Basilica Floor Plan
* The Bells of St. Peter's Basilica at Vatican