Page 230 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

228  ROME AREA B Y AREA

1 St. Peter’s . Dome of St. Peter’s
Designed by
The center of the Roman Catholic Michelangelo, though
faith, St. Peter’s draws pilgrims not finished in his life-
time, the spectacular
from all over the world. Few are cupola, 448 ft (136.5 m)
disappointed when they enter the high, gives unity to the
sumptuously decorated basilica majestic interior of
beneath Michelangelo’s vast dome. the basilica.
A shrine was erected on the site of
St. Peter’s tomb in the 2nd century
and the first great basilica, ordered by
the Emperor Constantine, was
completed around AD 349. By the
15th century it was falling down, so in
1506 Pope Julius II laid the first stone
of a new church. It took more than a
century to build and all the great
architects of the Roman Renaissance
and Baroque had a hand in its design.

Papal Altar
The present altar dates from the reign of
Clement VIII (1592–1605). The plain slab
of marble found in the Forum of Nerva stands
under Bernini’s baldacchino, overlooking
the well of the confessio, the crypt where
St. Peter’s body is reputedly buried.

Baldacchino
This magnificent canopy of
gilded bronze, set on spiral
columns 66 ft (20 m) high,
was designed by Bernini in
the 17th century.

KEY
1 The nave’s total length is
715 ft (218 m).
2 The two minor cupolas at
the corners of the transept are Pope Urban VIII’s Keys
by Vignola. At the base of
the columns of the
3 Facade by Carlo baldacchino, the coat of
Maderno (1614) arms of Pope Urban VIII
4 Stairs to the dome features the keys to the
Kingdom of Heaven.

228-229_EW_Rome_US.indd 228 19/04/2017 12:38