Description
St. Peter's Square is the great piazza in front of the basilica, at the edge of Rome's historic center, in the Vatican. It is a Baroque masterpiece: two arms of columns embrace it, and every day pilgrims from all over the world gather here.
The design is by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who described the colonnade as the "motherly" embrace of the Church toward Catholics, heretics and even unbelievers. The square has two parts: a trapezoid in front of the facade and a great oval, 198 meters by 148 in all.
The colonnade is a play of perspective: four rows of Doric columns and pillars support a continuous entablature, crowned by statues of saints exactly half the height of those on the basilica's facade. There are 284 columns and, from the first row to the fourth, their diameter grows slightly to make up for the opening of the curve.
In the center rises the Egyptian obelisk, of Roman date, and the whole design turns around it. On either side stand the two fountains: the one to the north was renovated by Maderno, the one to the south was made by Bernini to be its twin. Their position also hides an irregularity in the colonnade.
The trapezoid in front of the facade spreads its wings outward and makes the basilica look closer. Farther on, the arms of the colonnade join the corridors leading to the portico: on one side the Arm of Charlemagne, on the other that of Constantine, where the Scala Regia is.
Until the 1600s there was only a patch of beaten earth here. In Roman times the valley was home to Caligula's circus and to the necropolis where, according to tradition, St. Peter was buried. Sixtus V had the obelisk erected here in 1586, but it was not aligned with the basilica: even today it is off by a meter and a half to the north.
Maderno's facade was low and wide, and Bernini, who called it "squat," turned its flaws into effects. The work ran from 1656 to 1667, under Alexander VII, and split the Borgo district in two. The result is a theater: when the square is full, the crowd sees itself.
Here the pope gives the Urbi et Orbi blessing at Easter and Christmas, and on Sundays at noon he appears at his study window for the Angelus. At Christmas a great tree also goes up, a gift each year from a different European region, along with the statues of a nativity scene.
To open up the view of the basilica, Via della Conciliazione was cut between 1936 and 1950. The road wiped out the old axis of Via Alessandrina and many buildings of the Borgo.
Don't miss
• The Egyptian obelisk.
• The colonnade.
• The two fountains.
• The Arm of Charlemagne.
Did you know?
• In the Middle Ages people believed the globe at the top of the obelisk held the ashes of Julius Caesar.
• The square is in the Vatican, but up to the basilica's steps it is patrolled by the Italian police.
• The colonnade runs on a slope so slight you can barely notice it.
The design is by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who described the colonnade as the "motherly" embrace of the Church toward Catholics, heretics and even unbelievers. The square has two parts: a trapezoid in front of the facade and a great oval, 198 meters by 148 in all.
The colonnade is a play of perspective: four rows of Doric columns and pillars support a continuous entablature, crowned by statues of saints exactly half the height of those on the basilica's facade. There are 284 columns and, from the first row to the fourth, their diameter grows slightly to make up for the opening of the curve.
In the center rises the Egyptian obelisk, of Roman date, and the whole design turns around it. On either side stand the two fountains: the one to the north was renovated by Maderno, the one to the south was made by Bernini to be its twin. Their position also hides an irregularity in the colonnade.
The trapezoid in front of the facade spreads its wings outward and makes the basilica look closer. Farther on, the arms of the colonnade join the corridors leading to the portico: on one side the Arm of Charlemagne, on the other that of Constantine, where the Scala Regia is.
Until the 1600s there was only a patch of beaten earth here. In Roman times the valley was home to Caligula's circus and to the necropolis where, according to tradition, St. Peter was buried. Sixtus V had the obelisk erected here in 1586, but it was not aligned with the basilica: even today it is off by a meter and a half to the north.
Maderno's facade was low and wide, and Bernini, who called it "squat," turned its flaws into effects. The work ran from 1656 to 1667, under Alexander VII, and split the Borgo district in two. The result is a theater: when the square is full, the crowd sees itself.
Here the pope gives the Urbi et Orbi blessing at Easter and Christmas, and on Sundays at noon he appears at his study window for the Angelus. At Christmas a great tree also goes up, a gift each year from a different European region, along with the statues of a nativity scene.
To open up the view of the basilica, Via della Conciliazione was cut between 1936 and 1950. The road wiped out the old axis of Via Alessandrina and many buildings of the Borgo.
Don't miss
• The Egyptian obelisk.
• The colonnade.
• The two fountains.
• The Arm of Charlemagne.
Did you know?
• In the Middle Ages people believed the globe at the top of the obelisk held the ashes of Julius Caesar.
• The square is in the Vatican, but up to the basilica's steps it is patrolled by the Italian police.
• The colonnade runs on a slope so slight you can barely notice it.