Rome Pt 3 - Saint Peter's Basilica (3 Aug - 10 Aug)

The Papal Basilica of St Peter was created to replace an original Basilica from the 4th century.  It was started in 1506 and consecrated in 1626.

It is 730ft (220m) long, 500ft (150m) wide and 448.1ft (136.6m) high.  If this doesn't make much of an impression, let me tell you, it's massive!  The size slowly dawns on you as you approach and even inside its hard to tell.  The sheer scale of all of the decorations are such that they make it hard to get a sense of size.  Even the small cherubs on the wall sculptures are 5-6ft tall.

To give a comparison in size, The Melbourne Cricket Ground field is 171m x 146m for the entire field surface.  The Sydney Opera House is 600ft (183m) long by 394ft (129m) wide by 213ft (65m).  The Statue of Liberty is 151.1ft (46m high), and the longest Church in Australia is St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney at 351ft (107m) long.  So I hope that makes it clear that the Basilica is enormous.

Outside the Basilica lies Saint Peter's Square which was created to allow a large number of people to see and hear the Papal addresses.  In the centre of the square lies an ancient Egyptian obelisk that was erected in 1586 and the square was designed around it in 1656:

The Obelisk

Saint Peter's Basilica and the Obelisk from the far side of the square

Saint Peter's Square from the Basilica Entry

Looking up at the Papal balcony

Statues line the walls of the square

The Swiss Guard - Protectors of the Vatican (however they are now backed up by the Italian army with assault rifles)

Basilica from the far end of the square

The lines of statues are very impressive

Our final stop of the day was inside the Basilica.  The name of the Basilica comes from the burial place of Saint Peter - the apostle who was given the keys to heaven's gates by Jesus.  He is buried beneath the main central altar in the Basilica.  There are also many Pope's interred within.

Atrium leading the the entrance

There are two main entrances into the Basilica, the main public entrance and the Holy Door.  This door is sealed with concrete and mortar and opened in a ceremony on jubilee days for pilgrims to enter and seek forgiveness for sins.  This currently occurs every 25 years.  The last time was in 2000 and the next will be 2025.

The Holy Door

Us in front of the Holy Door

Stepping into the Basilica, my first impression was the size.  It stretched away in front of me and was filled with massive sculptures and an enormous altar which is placed over the tomb of Saint Peter.  As I mentioned above, the size doesn't really sink fully in until you realise the scale of the decorations

The High Altar or Baldachin is 20m (66ft) high!

First view inside

Around the top of the Nave

Around the top of the Nave on the Left wall is written
"IS EGO ROGAVI PRO TEO PETRE VT NON DEFICIAT FIDES TVA ET TV ALIQUANDO CONVERSVS CONFIRMA FRATRES TVOS" which translates to "I have prayed for you Peter, that your faith may never fail; and you in turn must strengthen your brothers."

On the Right wall is written:
"QVODCVMQ VE LIGAVERIS SVPER TERRAM ERIT LIGATVM ET I COELIS ET QVODCVMQVE SOLVERIS SVPERTERRAM ER I" which means "I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on Earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you declare loosed on Earth shall be loosed in heaven."

The letters are 6'5" high, just to give an idea of size.

Looking down the Nave

Turning right from the entrance we found Pieta, the statue of the Virgin Mary cradling the body of Jesus.  It was sculpted by Michelangelo and is unique in that he signed it.  He made it when he was only 25 and was concerned that he'd heard people attributing the work to others, so he signed it across the sash.  The photos didn't turn out too well as it is now behind a sheet of glass after someone tried to smash it with a hammer in 1971.

Pieta

The basin of Holy Water - look at the size of the cherubs compared to the kids

There are markers running down the middle of the Basilica showing the size compared to other large churches:

The marker for the Sanctarium Immaculate Conception in Washington (139.14m)

Looking down at how much longer the Basilica is that the Washington one

And looking down from where Saint Mary's Church in Sydney would lie

Saint Filippo Neri (Sculpted by Giovan Battista Maini)

Saint Helena

The papal crest of Pope Urban VIII incorporating the Barbarini (his original surname) three bees from their crest (the bees can be see all over the Vatican as reminders of Pope Urban Barbarini)

The Gloria and Holy Spirit in the Aspe of the Basilica

Grate down to the tomb of Saint Peter

Statue of Saint Peter - pilgrims rub the foot for luck.  It has been rubbed so much that the left foot is now just a nub

Looking up into the dome

The Dome

Another indication of scale - people up the top of the Dome

The Great Altar of Confession

The Baldachin or the Great Altar of Confession is directly above the Tomb of Saint Peter, only the Pope may stand at the altar.  The four columns around the Baldachin are 20m high and when they were being constructed the creator Gian Lorenzo Bernini informed the Pope that there was not enough bronze so they would need to be shortened. Pope Urban Barberini didn't want to change the size, so he took the bronze from the Pantheon and replace it with wood.  (Other tales say that the Pantheon bronze was used to make a cannon and the bronze for the altar came from Venice).  This lead to a famous saying "Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini" meaning "What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did."

St Juliana Falconieri

The Tomb of Alexander VII Chigi (1655-1667)

We spent some time at the very interesting tomb of Pope Alexander VII because of the amazing imagery.  The tomb shows the Pope in prayer as a skeletal Death holds up an hourglass.  It was sculpted by Bernini, Guiseppe Mazzuoli and Lazzaro Morelli.

An extra symbol lies at the bottom right:

The figure whose foot is shown here represents Religious Wisdom.  It can be seen to be standing on the Earth and a large thorn is spiking into the bottom of the foot.  By looking at the Earth, it can be see that the thorn rises from England.  This represents King Henry VIII's split from the Roman church.

We visited the tomb of Saint Peter (no photos allowed) and explored a little more before the heat started to get to us and we caught the train back to our apartment to rest up.