St. Peter’s Square from the top of the Basilica

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Featured in Artists Universe – July 2011

The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed “so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace”. Bernini had been working on the interior of St. Peter’s for decades; now he gave order to the space with his renowned colonnades, using the Tuscan form of Doric, the simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the palace-like façade by Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and evoke emotions of awe.

The site’s possibilities were under many constraints from existing structures. The massed accretions of the Vatican Palace crowded the space to the right of the basilica’s façade; the structures needed to be masked without obscuring the papal apartments. The obelisk marked a center, and a granite fountain by Carlo Maderno stood to one side: Bernini made the fountain appear to be one of the foci of the ellipse embraced by his colonnades and eventually matched it on the other side, in 1675, just five years before his death. The trapezoidal shape of the piazza, which creates a heightened perspective for a visitor leaving the basilica and has been praised as a masterstroke of Baroque theatre, is largely a product of site constraints.

It is thanks to Peter, the first Apostle and the first pope and leader of the Church that the most important basilica in the Christian world, the St. Peter’s Basilica, was built in Rome.

Peter was given his name by Jesus because he was destined to be the foundation “stone” (in Italian “Pietra”) on which the church would be built. He was certainly one of the most enterprising of the Apostles to say the least. He was imprisoned, and then miraculously released, following which he left Jerusalem and headed for Rome, the “Capital of the World”, which was the centre of the immense Roman Empire at that time. Here he became bishop and then reigned as the first pope for 25 years.

During the fierce persecution of Nero, he was imprisoned with millions of other condemned Christians and died by crucifixion sometime between 64 and 67 AD on the Vatican Hills in the Neronian circle. Rumour has it that he wanted to be put on the cross head-down as he did not feel he was worthy of being crucified in the same manner as Jesus.

Among the other tales about Peter is the one that says while he was on the road to his place of execution, or possibly when he ran away from Rome to flee his death, he met Jesus and he posed the fateful question “Domine, quo vadis?” to his Lord and decided to return.

It was here in the gigantic complex of the Neronian circle with its palaces, temples and gardens that the execution and burial of one of the most important Apostles of Christ took place. A long veneration of this sacred place soon began, so much so that while the grandiose Roman buildings fell to ruin, a Christian necropolis was built and successively, in the 4th century, Emperor Constantine decided to erect the first basilica in honour of the Saint. Text courtesy of Wikipedia and Italy Guides