In the
classical period the site was occupiedby Nero's Circus, between the Tiber,the
Janiculum,and the Vatican Hill,and St.Peter's,the Prince of the Apostoles,was martyred and
then buried here. Pope Anacletus had al-ready had a small basilica, ad corpas, or a
simple shrine built here. In 324 the emperor Constantine replaced the presumably modest
shrine with a basilica of Constantini-an type, in line with the other churches built in
Rome in that period. Finished in 349 by Constantius, son of Con-stantine, the original St.
Peter's was enriched throughout the centuries by donations and updatings by the popes and
munificent princes. It was in Constantine's basilica that Charlemagne received the crown
from the hands of Leo III in 800 and after him Lothair, Louis II, and Frederick III were
crowned emperors. Even so, a thou-sand years after its foundation St. Peter's was falling
into ruin and it was Nicholas V, on the advice of Leon Battista Alberti and with a plan by
Bernardo Rossellino, who be-gan to renovate and enlarge the Basilica. Various parts of the
building were torn down, and work on the new trib-une was started but soon came to a halt
when Nicholas V died. Work was not resumed until 1506 when Julius II della Rovere was
pope. Most of the original church was dismantled by Bramante (who earned himself the title
of " maestro ruinante "), with the intention of building ex novo a " modern
" building in the classic style: a Greek-cross plan inspired by the Pantheon. Various
supervisors succeeded each other until about the middle of the centu-ry: Fra Giocondo,
Raphael, Giuliano da Sangallo, Bal-dassarre Peruzzi, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, and,
finally, Michelangelo, who needless to say interpreted Bramante's plan, modifying it in
part, and envisioned the great dome (originally hemispherical) which crowned the renovated
basilica. Michelangelo was succeeded by Vig-nola, Pirro Ligorio, Giacomo Della Porta,
Domenico Fontana, all of whom interpreted his ideas quite faithful-ly. Then under Paul V,
it was decided to reinstate the basilica plan, and return to the Latin-cross idea. With
this in mind, the architect Carlo Maderno added three chapels to each side of the building
and brought the nave as far as the present facade, the building of which was en-trusted to
him when he won an important competition. Work was begun in November of 1607 and
terminated in 1612, after having " employed mountains of travertine from Tivoli
"
 The Basilica of St.
Peter's in Vatican also contains a whole collection of famous monuments, from
Michelangelo's Pietà to the venerated effigy of St. Peter shown in the act
of blessing, which dates to the 13th cen-tury; Bernini's Funeral Monument for Pope
Urban VIII,and the analogous Funeral Complex for Paul III by Guglielmo Della
Porta, the bronze Tomb created by An-tonio Pollaiolo for Pope Innocent VIII, which
was part of the original St. Peter's, and the neoclassic Monument to the Stuarts by
Canova.
|
 The facade, which is truly imposing in its proportions, is based on the
use of the giant Corinthian order, which ar-ticulates the front of the building with
columns and pilasters. On the ground floor these frame a large central porch, with an arch
on either side (the one on the left, the so-calledArchof the Bells, leads to Vatican
City), and, above, a row of nine balconies.
|
Thecrowning
element is a canonic attic surmounted by a balustrade which sup-ports thirteen
enormous statues, representing all the Apostles, except for St. Peter, as well as
Christ and St. John the Baptist. Above all looms Michelangelo's impos-ing dome with
its strong ribbing, and, emerging from the front but to the side, the " minor "
domes of the Gregori-ana and the Clementina chapels by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. After
the death of Carlo Maderno in 1629, the next director of works, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, left
his un-mistakeable mark. The prevalently Baroque character the building now displays was
his doing. It is sufficient to mention the decorative transformation of the nave and the
aisles, the erection of the justly famous bronze bal-dacchino (begun in 1624 and
inaugurated on St. Peter'sday in 1633), the decoration of the piers of the dome with four
large statues, the installment at the back of the apse of the Throne of St. Peter, one
of Bernini's most sumptu-ous inventions, a truly marvelous machine, built around the old
wooden chair which a pious tradition says was used by the apostle Peter. The organization
of St. Peter's square, once more by Bernini, also dates to the papacy of Alexander VII
(who financed the works for the throne), while under Clement X the architect designed and
built the small round temple which comprises the shrine of the Chapel of the Sacrament.
|
 There are many number of chapels, all
splendid in one way or the other, set along the perimeter of St. Peter's basili-ca, to
begin with the Chapel of the Pietà, named after Michelangelo's famous marble
sculpture of the Pietà which the young artist made between 1499 and 1500 for
cardinal Jean de Bilheres. After the Chapel of Saint Se-bastian(which contains
Francesco Messina's Monument to Pope Pius XIIJ is the better known Chapel of the
Holy Sacrament with Bernini's ciborium mentioned above and the bronze railing
designed by Borromini;
|
|
| Brief
mention must also be made of the baptismalfont, in porphyry, once part of a
classical sarcophagus (and then used as the sepulcher for Otho II), transformed into a
baptismal font by Carlo Fontana.The imposing Sacristy lies before the left
transept. Large as a church, it was conceived of as an independent build-ing, and consists
of the Sagrestia Comune on an oc-tagonal central plan, the so-called Sacristy of
the Canons, and the Chapter Hall. It was all designed by the Roman Carlo Marchionni at
the behest of Pius VI, who laid the first stone in 1776.Annexed to the Basilica is the Museo
della Fabbrica di San Pietro, or Historical Artistic Museum, which in-cludes the Treasury
of St. Peter's. It was designed by Giovan Battista Giovenale and contains the remains
of the enormous patrimony of the church which was repeat-edly scattered and carried off by
the Saracens, the Sack of Rome in 1527, the Napoleonic confiscations. |
Next is the Gregoriana
Chapel, a late 16th-century work finished by Giacomo della Porta and heavily decorated
with mosaics and precious marbles; the Chapel of the Column with the
astounding marble altarpiece depicting the Encounter be-twecn St. Leo and A ttila by
Algardi, and with the sepulchers of the many popes named Leo-the II, III, IV, XII;
the Clementina Chapel, named after Pope Cle-ment VII, built for him by Giacomo
della Porta, which houses the mortal remains of St. Gregory the Great; and, also by Della
Porta, the sumptuous Chapel of the Choir decorated with gilded stuccoes; finally
the Chapel of the Presentation with the recent Monument to Pope John XXIII, by
Emilio Greco. |
