Abcbb - Bed and Breakfast Rome B B center of Rome Saint Peter
San Pietro is built as a replacement for the run-down structure erected here by Costantino in the early fourth century on the site of San Pietro tomb. AS such, having been worked on by the greatest Italian architects of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Bramante has originally conceived a Greek cross plan rising to a hight central dome, but this plan was altered after his death and only revived with the very elderly Michelangelo accession as a chief architect. Michelangelo was largely responsible for the dome, but he died in 1564 before it was completed. He was succeeded by Vignola, and the dome was completed in 1590 by Giacomo della Porta. Carlo Maderno, under orders from Pope Paolo V, took over in 1605, and streched the church into a Latin cross plan.
The inside is very much of the Baroque era, largely the work of Bernini, who created many of the most important fixtures. As you enter on the right is Michelangelo pietà, completed when he was just 24 . As you walk down the nave, the size of the building becomes more apparent. The dome is imposing, rising high above the supposed site of St. Peter's tomb. The dome it is supported by four enormous piers, decorated with reliefs depicting the basilica's major relics: Santa Veronica handkerchief, wich was used to wipe the face of Christ, and is adorned with its miraculous image, the lance of St. Longinus and a piece of the True Cross, in the pier of St. Helen.
On the right site of the nave, the bronze statue of St. Peter is another of the most venerated monuments in the basilica. Bronze was also the material used in Bernini baldacchino, the centerpiece of the sculptor's Baroque embellishment of the interior, 927 tones of metal removed from the Pantheon roof in 1633. Bernini feverish sculpting decorates the apse too, his cattedra enclosing the supposed chair of St. Peter . On the right, the tomb of Urbano VIII also by Bernini is less grand but more dignified.
On the left the tomb of Palo III, by Giacomo della Porta. More interesting is Bernini monument to Alessandro VII in the south transept, with its winged skeleton struggling underneath the heavy marble drapes, upon which the Chigi pope is kneeling in prayer. On the left sits Charity, on the right, Truth Revealed in Time; to the rear are Hope and Faith.
The ascent to the roof and dome is in the northern courtyard between the church and the Vaticano Palace. The roof grants views from behind the huge statues onto the piazza below, before the ascent to the lantern at the top of the dome, from wich, the views over the city are glorious.
Opening Time Rome Saint Peter
* Basilica: 7.00-19.00 (October-March 7.00-18.00);
* Cupola: 8.00-18.00 (October-March 8.00-16.45);
* Tesoro: 9.00-18.00 (October-March 9.00-17.00)
How to get Rome Saint Peter
* Bus n. 64, 49, 81, 492 - Pho: 06/6984466 - 06/6984866
* Metro stop line A: Ottaviano
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