The St. Peter can be regarded as the most famous church in Rome, which is not so strange. This church is an example of a unique way of buildings that are built in baroque. If you get on the St. Peter's Square, you'll be very impressed by the unbelievable view on the Church. It consists of 284 pilars that are 40 feet each, and there are also 88 pillars from Attica, which are 10 feet high each.
The first design for the new St. Peter's church was made in 1657, bij Bernini. He found out, that if the pillars were placed in rows, exactly behind eachother, then the church would be a great example of optical delusion that is used in buildings. It seems that there is only óne row of pillars, but when you get closer to the church, you find that there are more rows of an amazing number of pillars.
The beautiful view on the church is the result of the works of some artists, that were so impressed by what was going on with the arts in their century.
But the way the church looks right now is not the way it has looked since it was set up the very first time. Once there was the old church, but the new style of architecture, baroque, made that the church had to be rebuilt and the view had to be improved.
The old St. Peter
The spot on which the new church was built, is now seen by the scholars and also by the earlier roman tradition as the place where Peter was buried. After excavating near the place many times, not only the probable grave of Peter was found, but also the graves of the early Roman emperors were found, one of them is the grave of Hadrianus. The "Meta Romuli" was also found there , the place that was regarded, any how by the Romans, as the grave of Romulus, the man who founded Rome. It is of course not really the grave of Romulus, but The Romans needed a place to go to, to worship Romulus There were also found pieces of old walls, and even a piece of an old wall in which there was a niche, and professional archeologists thought that the wall with the niche was built in the year of 160 AD. But then there was the question: what was the niche for?
In the year of 150 AD the christians placed a small monument at the place where many people who lived in Rome were buried, including Peter. They called the monument Memoria Petri, where the niche was, to store water for people to cross on themselves. The emperor Constantin the Great wanted the necropolis to be built and the Vatican Hill should be flattered so that a new buildingcould be built, that could attract people's attention and that had the function as a sacred place, beceause of the graves. The architects called the building Quadriporticus. Quadriporticus lay on top of the hill and could be reached by the stairs that counted 35 steps.
There were many different rooms and there was a large garden. The decorations were very shiny and expensive: there were peacocks and a dolphin made of silver. The cemetery had a great gate made of marble, the Sacred Gate, and was opened only once in 25 years, beceause of the sacred place. In many years there a lot of changes and renovations were made and of course the building had to fight a lot of symptoms of his high age. That's the reason there had to be another new church.
The new St.-Peter
The old church had been used in time of invasions as a goal to shoot on in times of war beceause it was a very central place to go to in Rome for the people of the higher layer of the population. That got the church into a very critical situation: The walls became more and more instable and the church had to fight decay.
For that reason the pope Nicholas V instructed the population to help to bring the church in better situation. But the people did not really listen to him and abandoned the plan , after the pope was dead. Only when pope Julius II came foreward did the people start to work on the idea to build a new church. Nicholas instructed Bramante to make a design for the new church. He worked it out and the new church had to be a central place with a big central dome and four smaller domes. From above the church had to have the shape of a Greek cross. After Bramante died Michelangelo became the leader of the building of the new church and of course put a lot of his own ideas in the church.
After Michelangelo there was another important person: Bernini. He actually gave baroque a name. The design of the high altar was his, and it has a very own look, sculpture and architecture had been fused to one individual stile: baroque. The height of the canopy is great on purpose: this was a symbol of absolute domination over the people who didn't believe in God and over the Jewish.
Bernini made lots of important things in the Church. The Canopy is one of the most important things and there is even the grave of Alexander VIII. So it must have been a great honour for Bernini to make the Church.
The most important things of the St.-Peter
The Canopy of Bernini
The Canopy of Bernini is a wonderful piece of art. Bernini made it with the help of instructions pope Urbanus VIII gave him, in 1624. Bernini finished the job in 1633. The altar for the Confessio, of the popes is standing underneath the canopy. First it was standing in the way Bernini gave it, but Maderna changed it and made it large ang huge and covered it with marble. If you take a good look you will see that there are many lamps, 91 to be exact, which are also made out of bronze and they are covered with gold.
The pillars
There are four large pillars around the large bome. The sculptures are about 5 metres high and made by Bernini. The pillars also have balconies that consist the pillars of the old church. They have got exactly the same shape as the Sacred Pillar, which is one of Salomo's Temple and it is said that Jesus even leant against that pillar. The pillar is preserved in the St.-Peter's treasure-chamber.
The Sacred Doors
On the bronze doors you can see six stories of the Bible, and you can see Mary and Jesus and parts of the lives of Peter and Paulus.
Maderna
THe St.-Peter was built by Bernini. Bernini put a lot of his ideas in the church. It wasn't totally finished when he died, so someone else had to finish all the sculptures and the pieces of art. That man was Maderna. He did a lot of changes and made some things look less gushing graceful. But he made the things that he found too small, larger, like the canopy. So the St.-Peter is not anymore like it was when Bernini had finished it, but consists of more than one idea about baroque.
Urbanus VIII
Urbanus VIII was the pope from 1623 until 1644. He was not a very decent person, and not at all in the way he was the Head of the church and of his politics. He even had an affair with his niece, which story is on the pillars. Urbanus also was guilty of nepotism, so he only let good friends and family ruel the Church and Italy.