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| 1 Bronze Doors 2 Arch of the Bells 3 St Peter's Door 4 Tower of Nicolas V 5 Palace of Sixtus V 6 Palace of Gregory V 7 Medieval Palace 8 Borgia Tower 9 Sistine Chapel 10 Hall of Ligorio 11 Vatican Apostolic Library (Bldg. of Sixtus V) 12 Courtyard of the Library 13 Braccio Nuove 14 Tower of the Winds 15 Corridor of Bramante 16 Niche of the Pinecone 17 Fountain of the Sailing Ship 18 Stairway of Bramante 19 The Belvedere 20 Pio-Clementino Museum 21 The Four Gates 22 Entrance to the Vatican Museums 23 Painting Gallery 24 Gregorian Profane Museum, 25 Carriage Museum 26 The Passetto 27 Gate of Sant' Anna 28 Church of Sant' Anna dei Palafrenieri 29 Courtyard of the Swiss Guards 30 Vatican Printing Press 31 Restoration Lab of Tapestries 32 Church of San Pellegrino 33 L'Osservatore Romano 34 Central Post Office 35 Palace of the Belvedere 36 Piazza del Forno 37 Fountain of the Sacrament 38 Casino Pio of Pius IV | ||
| 39 Pontifical Academy of Sciences 40 House of the Gardener 41 Fountain of the Eagle 42 Tower of Gallinaro 43 Vatican Radio 44 Border of the Leonine City 45 Grotto of Lourdes 46 Tower of St John 47 Marconi Transmitting Station | 48 Ethiopian College 49 Governatorato Building 50 Railway Station 51 Mosaic Studio 52 Church of Santo Stefano degli Abissini 53 Tribunal Palace 54 Palace of the Archpriest 55 Palace of San Carlo | 56 Piazza Santa Marta 57 Hospice of Santa Marta 58 Palace of the Rectory and Sacristy 59 Plaza of the Roman Protomartyrs 60 Teutonic College and Cemetery 61 Papal Audience Hall 62 Palace of the Sant' Uffizio 63 Church of San Salvatore in Terrione | |
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| The Basilica of St. Peter is in the heart of the Vatican City, an independent sovereign state on the right bank of the Tiber river, in the centre of Rome. The Vatican State is the smallest State in the world, and what remains of temporal dominions of the Church, which were annexed to Italy at the end of 1800's with the unification of the country. The Basilica as we see it today, with its ribbed dome stands impressively in its square which seems to welcome all the pilgrims of the world in the embrace of the Mother Church. It was designed by the most famous architects and geniuses of the Renaissance and Baroque time. The Basilica stands on the foundations of the Constantinian basilica, that stood for over a thousand years on a sacred area of Pagan-Christians mausoleums. St. Peter's Square with its famous colonnade which represents one of the most brilliant ideas of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is 320 meters wide with a central ellipsis of 240 meters and is surrounded by 4 rows of 284 columns and 88 pilasters. The balustrade above the columns is decorated with 140 statues of Saints. Below, a huge stairway of three flights flanked by the statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. In the center of the square there are two great fountains and an obelisk. The façade of the Basilica -14.69 mt. wide and 47.3 mt. high - is made of travertine of Tivoli. It features a unique structure of Corinthian columns and frames a broad central portico with two arcades on either side (the one on the left leads to the City of the Vatican); above, nine balconies with windows (the central one is the loggia of the blessings) and a canonical attic surmounted by the balustrade that supports thirteen statues. Five bronze doors lead inside. In the middle of the church dominate the magnificent "dome" by Michelangelo and the smaller domes of the Gregorian and Clementine chapels. Inside, the Basilica is 186 m long (218.7 with the portico, or front hall), the main nave is 46 m in height and the height of the dome is 119 m. Under the dome is the papal altar, with the famous canopy by Bernini rising over it. Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, wanted the building of the Basilica in 315 AD exactly on the site where the tomb of Christ's first Apostle was worshipped.
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| Originally the Vatican area was an unhealthy and uninhabited place. Itscondition improved at the beginning of the 1st century, when the area closest to the Tiber River was reclaimed. Following works saw the creation ofgardens, large parks, villas and outstanding buildings, such as Naumachia Vaticana, probably used for water games and the Mausoleum of Hadrian, today known as Castel Sant'Angelo, and the private circus of Caligula. Along via Cornelia there were tombs, altars and sepulchres, in total respect of the Roman law that prescribed for all burial places to be located outside of residential areas. Built by Emperor Caligula between 37 and 40 AD, the building was located onthe left side of the current basilica, in the valley leading down to the river. The circus was the stage for the first persecution of the Christians by Nero. The position of the circus has been known since at least the 1600's, also due to the fact that the obelisk rising in the centre of the circus stood in its original place until 1586, when it was moved to the centre of St. Peter's square upon orders of Sixtus V. The circus was already out of use one hundred and fifty years after its construction, at the time of the Emperor Caracalla, when a large circular mausoleum was built above the circus not too far from the obelisk and later dedicated to St. Andrew.
From then on, political and religious powers were no longer unified in the person of the Emperor, to the point where in 330 AD the capital was transferred to the East, leading to the founding of a city named after himself on the Bosphorus: Constantinople. He made of Rome the religious centre of the Empire and for this purpose started an intense building program that had to give to the rising Church its worthyplaces of worship. The first building erected was the Basilica, in order to assure an adequate celebration of the prince of the apostles. The church of San Giovanni in Laterano followed, then the Papal residence and the Imperial palace; followed by Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, San Pietro and Marcellino, San Sebastiano, San Lorenzo outside the walls and finally the church of Sant'Agnese. St. Peter's Basilica grew also thanks to works and donations made by princes and popes; in 800 Charles the Great was crowned by the Pope Leo III, after him was Lotario, Ludovico II° and Federico III°. | |||
The radical transformation of the entire Vatican area took place in the 4thcentury, when Christianity rapidly took over pagan worship. After the abdication of Diocletian, responsible for the last great persecutions, the wars ofsuccession to conquer the power ended with the nomination in 307 AD of Emperor Constantine. Son of one of Diocletian’s generals, Constantine was recognised as Emperor in 312, after the defeat at Saxa Rubra, near Rome, of his rival Maxentius, on October 28th, who drowned in the Tiber river. The following year, the Emperor established the liberalisation of the religion with the edict of Milan, ensuring that Christianity was no longer obstructed and could be worshipped freely.