May 18, 2024 - Classic Italy
St. Peters Basilica
Passing the Castel Sant'Angelo, also known as the Mausoleum of Hadrian. The Castle looked very interesting but we did not get a chance to tour it. Someday.
It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family, built between 134 and 139 AD.. The popes later used the building as a fortress and castle, and it is now a museum. The structure was once the tallest building in Rome.
Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, and Carlo Maderno, with piazza and fittings by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter's is one of the most renowned works of Italian Renaissance architecture and is the largest church in the world by interior measure. While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome (these equivalent titles being held by the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome), St. Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world", and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom."
It was initially planned in the 15th century by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the ageing Old St. Peter's Basilica, which was built in the fourth century by Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626.
In the center of St. Peter's Square stands the Vatican obelisk, an uninscribed Egyptian obelisk of red granite, 84 ft tall, supported on bronze lions and surmounted by the Chigi arms in bronze, in all 135 ft to the cross on its top. The obelisk was originally erected in Heliopolis, Egypt, by an unknown pharaoh.
The Emperor Augustus had the obelisk moved to the Julian Forum of Alexandria, where it stood until AD 37, when Caligula ordered the forum demolished and the obelisk transferred to Rome. He had it placed on the spina which ran along the center of the Circus of Nero. It was moved to its current site in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana under the direction of Pope Sixtus V; the engineering feat of re-erecting its vast weight was memorialized in a suite of engravings. The obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since antiquity. During the Middle Ages, the gilt ball atop the obelisk was believed to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar. Fontana later removed the ancient metal ball, now in a Roman museum, and found only dust inside; Christopher Hibbert, however, writes that the ball was found to be solid. Though Bernini had no influence in the erection of the obelisk, he did use it as the centerpiece of his magnificent piazza, and added the Chigi arms to the top in honor of his patron, Alexander VII.
Behind the façade of St. Peter's stretches a long portico or "narthex" such as was occasionally found in Italian churches. At each end of the portico is a theatrical space framed by ionic columns and within each is set a statue.
At the north end is The Vision of Constantine (1670) by Bernini.
As an early Christian ruler, the figure of Constantine the Great was particularly appealing to later popes, particularly in the seventeenth century. Bernini's sculpture adapted one particular moment of Constantine's life.
Five portals, of which three are framed by huge salvaged antique columns, lead into the Basilica.
The last door on the right is the "Holy Door". This door is bricked up on the inside. On the first day of the Holy Year, celebrated every 25 years, the Pope strikes the brick wall with a hammer, and so opens the door to let in the pilgrims who come to make the most of the indulgence. It will be closed by the Pope himself at the end of the Holy Year. The Holy Door represents Jesus, the Good Shepherd and the gate of the sheep pen: "I am the gate. Whoever enters through me, will be safe. He will go in and out, and find pasture" (Jn 10:9).
We enter the Basilica. This picture of the Nave doesn't capture the sheer size of the Basilica. It's just awesome. I've been in many Cathedrals, and they are big, but this is the grandaddy, the biggest of the big. The Basilica has a capacity of 60,000 standing worshippers.
Close to where I'm standing when I took this photo was Charlemagne's Coronation Site.
Charlemagne (748 – 814 AD) was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy Roman Emperor from 800, until his death in 814. He united most of Western and Central Europe, and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire approximately three centuries earlier. Charlemagne's reign was marked by political and social changes that had lasting influence on Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
The Pietà ("[Our Lady of] Pity"; 1498–1499) is a Carrara marble sculpture of Jesus and Mary at Mount Golgotha representing the "Sixth Sorrow" of the Virgin Mary by Michelangelo Buonarroti. It is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture and often taken as the start of the High Renaissance.
The sculpture captures the moment when Jesus, taken down from the cross, is given to his mother Mary. Mary looks younger than Jesus; art historians believe Michelangelo was inspired by a passage in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy: "O virgin mother, daughter of your Son [...] your merit so ennobled human nature that its divine Creator did not hesitate to become its creature" (Paradiso, Canto XXXIII). Michelangelo's aesthetic interpretation of the Pietà is unprecedented in Italian sculpture because it balances early forms of naturalism with the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty.
The statue was originally commissioned by a French cardinal, Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, then French ambassador in Rome. The sculpture was made, probably as an altarpiece, for the cardinal's funeral chapel in Old St Peter's. When this was demolished it was preserved, and later took its current location, the first chapel on the north side after the entrance of the new basilica, in the 18th century. It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed.
Per Rick Steves: the Pieta is a representation of Mary with the body of Christ taken from the cross. It was Michaelangelo's first major commission and with his total mastery of the real world, captures the sadness of the moment. Mary cradels her crucified son in her lap. Christ's lifeless right arm drooping down lets us know how heavy this corpse is. Mary looks at her dead son with sad tenderness, her left hand turns upward, asking, "How could they do this to you?"
The Pieta is protected behind a bulletproof acrylic glass panel, having been damaged back in 1972 by some luntatic who went at it with a hammer and damaged it.
The Main Alter. Under renovation, unfortunately for us. It consists of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's seven-story bronze canopy (God's "four-poster bed"), which "exxtneds the altar upward. The corkscrew columns echo the marble ones that surrounded the altar/tomb in Old St. Peter's.
The Main Alter is used only when the pope himself says Mass. He sometimes conducts the Sunday morning service when he's in town.
A glimpse of the big Dome interior. It is the tallest dome in the world. Per Rick Steves: "The dome soars higher than a football field on end, 448 feet from the floor to the top of the latern. It glows with light from its windows, the blue and gold mosaics creating a cool, solmn atmosphere. In this majestic vision of heaven (not painted by Michelangelo), we see (above the windows) Jesus, mary, and a ring of saints, rings of more angels above them, and, way up in the ozone, God the Father (a blur of blue and red, unless you have binoculars).
Michelangelo redesigned the dome in 1547, taking into account all that had gone before. His dome, like that of Florence, is constructed of two shells of brick, the outer one having 16 stone ribs. Michelangelo died in 1564, leaving the drum of the dome complete. Following his death, the work continued under his assistant Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola with Giorgio Vasari appointed by Pope Pius V as a watchdog to make sure that Michelangelo's plans were carried out exactly. Despite Vignola's knowledge of Michelangelo's intentions, little happened in this period. In 1585 the energetic Pope Sixtus V appointed Giacomo della Porta who was to be assisted by Domenico Fontana. The five-year reign of Sixtus was to see the building advance at a great rate. Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana brought the dome to completion in 1590, the last year of the reign of Sixtus V. His successor, Gregory XIV, saw Fontana complete the lantern and had an inscription to the honour of Sixtus V placed around its inner opening. The next pope, Clement VIII, had the cross raised into place, an event which took all day, and was accompanied by the ringing of the bells of all the city's churches. In the arms of the cross are set two lead caskets, one containing a fragment of the True Cross and a relic of St. Andrew and the other containing medallions of the Holy Lamb.
In fact, Michelangelo had a big hand in the building of St. Peter's Basilica itself. On 1 January 1547 in the reign of Pope Paul III, Michelangelo, then in his seventies, succeeded Sangallo the Younger as "Capomaestro", the superintendent of the building program at St Peter's. He is to be regarded as the principal designer of a large part of the building as it stands today, and as bringing the construction to a point where it could be carried through. He did not take on the job with pleasure; it was forced upon him by Pope Paul, frustrated at the death of his chosen candidate, Giulio Romano and the refusal of Jacopo Sansovino to leave Venice. Michelangelo wrote, "I undertake this only for the love of God and in honour of the Apostle." He insisted that he should be given a free hand to achieve the ultimate aim by whatever means he saw fit.
Michelangelo took over a building site at which four piers, enormous beyond any constructed since ancient Roman times, were rising behind the remaining nave of the old basilica. He also inherited the numerous schemes designed and redesigned by some of the greatest architectural and engineering minds of the 16th century. There were certain common elements in these schemes. They all called for a dome to equal that engineered by Brunelleschi a century earlier and which has since dominated the skyline of Renaissance Florence, and they all called for a strongly symmetrical plan of either Greek Cross form, like the iconic St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, or of a Latin Cross with the transepts of identical form to the chancel, as at Florence Cathedral.
Even though the work had progressed only a little in 40 years, Michelangelo did not simply dismiss the ideas of the previous architects. He drew on them in developing a grand vision. Above all, Michelangelo recognized the essential quality of Bramante's original design. He reverted to the Greek Cross and, as Helen Gardner expresses it: "Without destroying the centralising features of Bramante's plan, Michelangelo, with a few strokes of the pen converted its snowflake complexity into massive, cohesive unity."
The Altar of the Transfiguration, with a mosaic reproduction of one of the masterpieces of Raphael (1483-1520), the great painter's last work. Jesus, bathed in light, is borne aloft between Moses and Elijah, also in ecstasy, while the Apostles Peter, James and John, prostrate, contemplate this glimpse of paradise. On the left, almost hidden, are Sts. Felicissimus and Agapitus, who are commemorated on 6 August, the Feast of the Transfiguration.
In the lower part, the healing of the young man who was "possessed" is portrayed, giving the scene a sense of agitation, while in the upper part of the picture, profound peace is contemplated. In the center, a kneeling woman represents the Church which brings peace and hope and invites us to await them as gifts from above.
Giulio de' Medici commissioned the painting for the the French Cathedral of Narbonne, but it remained in Rome in San Pietro in Montorio after 1523. Napoleon had it taken to Paris in 1797, and it was brought back to the Vatican in 1815.
A team of six artists took nine years to execute the mosaic, finishing in 1767.
Monument to Pius VIII. The Pope is show kneeling, accompanied by a statue of Christ enthroned, with statues of Sts. Peter and Paul. The allegories are Prudence and Justice.
Pius VIII was imprisoned in 1808 during the French domination of Italy for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon.
He approved the decrees of the Council of Baltimore (October 1829), the first formal meeting of US bishops.
Under the monument is a door leading to the Sacristy and Treasury Museum. In this passage is a list of all the popes buried in St. Peter's. In front of the monument is a mass schedule for the basilica.
At center is the Altar of St. Joseph. The center altar of the left transept was dedicated to St. Joseph, Mary's husband, and blessed by Pope John XXIII on March 19, 1963.
On the right is the Altar of St. Thomas the Apostle.
At bottom left is the St. Longinus Statue, carbed by Bernini in 1634 from four blocks of marble.
St. Longinus was the Roman centurion who pierced the side of Christ with a lance. He is said to have converted to Christianity after experiencing the darkness after Christ's death.
What was believed to be the Holy Lance of Longinus, was given to Innocent VIII in 1492.
This, the Tomb of Alexander VII, is one of the most famous papal monuments in St. Peter's, is the masterpiece of the 80-year old Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
The Pontiff, kneeling and absorbed in prayer, is not disturbed by the sudden appearance of Death, who, raising a heavy pall, brandishes an hour-glass to indicate that time has passed. The four statues represent the virtues practiced by the Pontiff: in the foreground is Charity by G. Mazzuoli, with a child in her arms, and Truth, by Morelli and Cartari, who sets a foot on a map of the world, and precisely on England where the Pope sought in vain to quell the growth of Anglicanism; on the second level is Prudence, by G. Cartari, and Justice, by L. Balestri.
The skeleton of Death is in gilded bronze; the splendid drapery which conceals part of the door under it is made of Sicilian jasper; the statues are carved in white marble and the plinth in black, as a sign of mourning.
The door under the monument leads to an exit of the basilica. Alexander VII was the pope who commissioned Bernini to enclose St. Peter's Square with the colonnade.
Looking to the right of the main altar.
The dome above the papal altar is supported by four gigantic piers, two of which can be seen in this picture, 45 m. high with a perimeter of 71 m., started by Bramante and completed by Michelangelo.
An excellent guide to the interior of St. Peter's Basilica can be found ats stpetersbasilica.info. Start with the floorplan map.
As we exit the Basilica, we pass by the colorful Swiss Guards.
The Pontifical Swiss Guard, also known as the Papal Swiss Guard or simply Swiss Guard, is an armed force and honour guard unit maintained by the Holy See that protects the Pope and the Apostolic Palace within the territory of the Vatican City State. Established in 1506 under Pope Julius II, it is among the oldest military units in continuous operation, and is sometimes called "the world's smallest army".
The Swiss Guard is popularly recognised by its Renaissance-era dress uniform, consisting of a tunic striped in red, dark blue, and yellow, high plumed helmet, and traditional weapons such as the halberd. However, guardsmen perform their protective duties in functional attire and with modern firearms; since the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, the Guard has placed greater emphasis on its nonceremonial roles and has seen enhanced training in unarmed combat, small arms, and counterterrorism tactics.
The Swiss Guard is considered an elite military unit and highly selective in its recruitment: candidates must be unmarried Swiss Catholic males between 19 and 30 years of age, and at least 5 feet 8.5 inches, who have completed basic training with the Swiss Armed Forces and hold a professional diploma or high school degree. As of 2024 there were 135 members.
The Swiss Guard's security mission extends to the Pope's apostolic travels, the pontifical palace of Castel Gandolfo, and the College of Cardinals when the papal throne is vacant. Though the Guard traditionally served as watchmen of Vatican City, the overall security and law enforcement of the city-state is conducted by the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City, which is a separate body.
