Page 378 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

376  IT AL Y AND GREECE

1 St. Peter’s

Catholicism’s most sacred shrine, the . Dome
vast, marble-encrusted basilica draws The 137 m (448 ft)
dome, designed by
pilgrims and tourists from all over the Michelangelo, was not
world. A shrine was erected on the site completed until 1590,
of St. Peter’s tomb in the 2nd century long after his death.
and the first basilica was commissioned
by Constantine. Centuries later, in 1506,
Pope Julius II laid the first stone of a
new church while the original basilica
was still in use. The present basilica,
187 m (615 ft) long, took more than
a century to build and all the great
architects of the Roman Renaissance
and Baroque had a hand in its design.
The dominant tone of the interior is set
by Bernini, creator of the baldacchino
below Michelangelo’s
magnificent dome.

Baldacchino
Commissioned by Urban VIII
in 1624, Bernini’s extravagant
Baroque canopy stands
above the Papal Altar, a plain
slab of marble, at which only
the pope may say mass. The
altar is sited directly above the
tomb of St. Peter in the
Grottoes below.

KEY
1 The Treasury is reached via the Monument to Pope
Sacristy. It houses ecclesiastical Alexander VII
treasures, including reliquaries, Bernini’s last work in St. Peter’s was
tombs, and vestments. finished in 1678 and shows the pope
surrounded by the allegorical figures
2 The apse is dominated by of Truth, Justice, Charity,
Bernini’s spectacular bronze and Prudence.
monument containing the
Throne of St. Peter in Glory.
3 Two minor cupolas by
Vignola (1507–73).
4 The facade (1614) is by
Carlo Maderno, who lengthened
the basilica to create its Latin-
cross floorplan.
5 From this window, the pope
blesses the faithful gathered in the The Grottoes
piazza below. A fragment of this
6 The nave floor has markings that 13th-century mosaic by
show the lengths of other churches Giotto, salvaged from the old
compared with St. Peter’s. basilica, is now in the Grottoes,
where many popes are buried.
For hotels and restaurants see pp438–40 and pp441–3

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