Page 232 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

230  ROME AREA B Y AREA

A Guided Tour of St. Peter’s
The vast basilica’s 615 ft- (187 m-) long, 5 Baldacchino by Bernini
marble-encrusted interior contains Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII
11 chapels, 45 altars, and a wealth in 1624, the extravagant Baroque
of precious works of art. Some were canopy dominates the nave and
crowns the Papal Altar, at which only
salvaged from the original basilica the pope may celebrate mass.
and others commissioned from late
Renaissance and Baroque artists, but
much of the elaborate decoration is owed Bernini’s Monument
to Urban VIII
to Bernini’s mid-17th-century work. The
two side aisles are 250 ft- (76 m-) long
and converge under Michelangelo’s
enormous dome. The building’s
central focus is the Papal Altar beneath
Bernini’s great baldacchino, filling the
space between the four piers that
support the dome. From the basilica you
can visit the Grottoes, where the late Pope
John Paul II is buried, the Treasury, and St.
Peter’s Sacristy, or the terrace for panoramic views.
4 Throne of St. Peter
in Glory
In the domed apse, look
up to the window above
Bernini’s Baroque sculpture
of 1656–65. It lights the
image of the Holy Spirit,
shown as a dove amid
clouds, rays of sunlight,
and flights of angels.

Entrance to Treasury
and Sacristy
Historical Plan of the Basilica Entrance to
of St. Peter’s Necropolis
St. Peter was buried c. AD 64 in a necropolis 3 Monument to Pope
near his crucifixion site at the Circus of Nero. Alexander VII
Constantine built a basilica on the Bernini’s last work was
burial site in AD 324. In the finished in 1678 and
15th century the old church was is in an alcove on the
found to be unsafe and had left of the transept.
to be demolished. It was The pope sits among
rebuilt in the 16th and the figures of Truth,
17th centuries. By Justice, Charity,
1614 the facade was and Prudence.
ready, and in 1626 the
new church was
consecrated.

Key
2 Monument to Leo XI
Circus of Nero
On the left beneath the
Constantinian aisle arch is Alessandro
Renaissance Algardi’s white marble
Baroque 1650 monument to Leo XI,
Key whose reign as pope
lasted only 27 days.
Tour route

US_230-231_EW_Rome_US.indd 230 16/03/17 11:55 am
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Starsight template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2)
Date 3rd September 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm