Saint Peter´s Basilica is simbol of the force and the platform which,
when the time again became ripe, would explode as the glorious centre
of a rejuvenated Rome. By the third century, the Roman Empire had
grown too big for its own good. Emperor Diocletian, aiming to make his
cumbersome and restless dominions more manageable, divided the Empire
into Eastern and Westem parts. The East was governed from Constantinople
and the West from Ravenna, and then Milan. No longer the political
focus of the Mediterranean and the conquered European world, the
splendid city of Rome went into decline. However, before the Western
Empire fell apart, two developments ensured that through its dark years,
Rome's light would diminish but not extinguish. One was the
establishment of the papacy. The second was the Basilica erected by
Emperor Constantine, that great saviour of the Christians, over St
Peter's grave.
In front of Saint Peter's Basillica you´ll find the statues of Saint Peter...
and Saint Paul, with Jesus on the topPeter,
considered first amongst Christ's twelve apostles, was crucified and
buried in Rome in 61 CE. He was the founder of Christianity in Rome. The
Pope is recognized as his successor, as well as the Vicar of Christ
and the worldwide spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church. As Rome
struggled through its difficult years, the papacy floundered but held
itself together. By the eighth century, the legacy of the Western Roman
Empire had been appropriated by a federation of central European states
going by the nomenclature of the Holy Roman Empire.
Unified by Latin
Christianity, the Empire beheld the Pope as its spiritual head.
Nevertheless, despite being protected by the Holy Roman Emperors, the
papacy remained insecure. By the fifteenth century, however, it had
recharged and consolidated its resources. The Church was now plump with
wealth, and its custodians, the popes, were itching to reassert their
religion's and their own domimince. The Renaissance had begun in Italy.
Rome's time had come again.
More than 1100 years into its first
incarnation by now, St Peter's Basilica was not in the best of shape.
Pope Nicholas V decided to something about it. From the time he began
the demolition of the old building in 1452 to the consecration of the
new building in 1626, eighteen popes blessed and witnessed the project.
More importantly, virtually the who's who of the Renaissance's Creative
line-up, as well as many Mannerist and Baroque virtuosos, contributed to
it. The result was awesome.
The first impression of the Basilica - since 1929, a part of the
independent Vatican state, within Rome - is of the enormity of its
scale. The arrow straight road from the teeming city breaks into a
massive piazza enclosed with semi - circular Doric colonnades designed
by the Baroque architect Giovanni Bernini.
From the centre of the
enormous space rises an Egyptian obelisk, first brought to Rome by
Emperor Caligula in the first century, and raised here in the sixteenth
century in complete silence, as a symbol of Christianity's victory over
pagan faiths. The cross at its pinnacle is said to contain the relics of
Christ's True Cross. The fifty-metre-high palatial façade of the
Basilica is propped up by Corinthian columns. Again in Baroque style,
Carlo Maderno's design is perfect for the Pope to stand at the balcony
and bless the thronging crowds below. Past the main entrance into the
Basilica is the Porta Santa, or the Holy Door, which is traditionally
kept walled up and opened personally by the Pope for the course of a
designated Holy Year. A window in the apse lights up an image of the
Holy Spirit as a dove.
Dominating the nave is Bernini's ornamental
baldacchino of gilded bronze. It covers the main altar at which only the
Pope can celebrate Mass. Underneath it is St Peter's subterranean
crypt, from which two-and-a-half hectares of magnificence radiates.Some
way off from the Basilica, on Janiculum hillside, is the site of St.
Peter's crucifixion. In the early sixteenth century, Donato Bramante
designed the Tempietto San Pietro here. Displaying all the elements of
classical antiquity, the Tempietto is considered Rome's first true
Renaissance building. Its drum, dome and Dark columns served as the
prototypal essence of the Basilica's central plan, for which Bramantc
was commissioned by Pope Julius II. He was succeeded by another
Renaissance giant, Raphael, much of whose handiwork was later altered.
However, the creative instinct behind the Basilica's masterpiece, its
dome, was Michelangelo's.At the age of seventy - one, Michelangelo was
persuaded to take over as chief architect of St Peter's. His conditions:
he would work "for the love of the Saint", without payment, without
interference and without accounting responsibilities. He probably got
the deal he wanted, though his hemispherical design was changed to an
ovoid shape due to structural concerns.
Almost 140 metres high, the
dome gets its skeletal strength from sixteen externally visible radial
ribs. One can climb up to the base of the lantern for a sweeping view of
the symmetrical piazza.
The
inner shell looms over the baldacchino. Embellished with scores of
frescoes, its curvature soars up to a bright climax. Medallions of
saints are ranged around the base. Around it, in letters two metres
high, are words from the Gospel of Matthew. They recall of the true
reason for the sumptuous art and grandeur all around: "Thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church... I will give you the keys to
the Kingdom of Heaven..." The Keys are below, carved on the base of the
altar canopy, as part of Pope Urban VIII's coat of arms.
