St. Peter's Basilica
In the early years after Christ, the Roman emporer Nero had constructed a circus (Circo Vaticano) where St. Peter's is located today.
In 315, Emperor Constantine ordered construction of a
basilica. He tore down Nero's circus and St Peter's Basilica was copleted in 326.
St Peter's Basilica by Constantine was in poor condition a thousand years after its construction. After great controversy a new basilica was designed and the old one was demolished. Unfortunately Byzantine mosaics and frescoes were destroyed in the process. The new St. Peter's Basilica we see today tok 150 years to complete. Artists involved in its completion included Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo and Giacomo della Porta.
Michelangelo who took it over in 1547, aged 72, and designed the dome. The dome is 138 feet in diameter and the top is 452 feet above the street.
In the 17th century further important modifications were made by Bernini when he created the great colonnade that encircles the Piazza San Pietro.
A perfect ellipse surrounds by the magnificent colonnade. The colonnade contains two hundred and eighty four Doric pillars arranged in four rows with a passage in the middle for carriage. One hundred and forty statues of saints and martyrs surmounted the colonnade.
Excavations that commenced in 1940 under the basilica unearthed remnants of the original church and the tomb of St Peter. Pope Paul VI declared the bones form the tomb to be those of St Peter.
Related Sites:
Thanks to about.com and http://www.greatbuildings.com for the information.
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