St Peter's Basilica

Saint Peter was buried after martyring with other apostles in 64 AD. Pilgrims began to come and visit the shrine. Because of this, the Emperor Constantine after his conversion to Christianity, erected a Basilica on this very spot in 324 AD.

In the course of centuries San Peter's Basilica under went many transformations until the moment in which the greatest artists of Renaissance gave it the aspect that we admire today. 

Carlo Maderno constructed the façade between 1606 and 1614. Twenty years later Bernini, certainly the greatest Baroque architect, was entrusted to reconstruct it; he had the superb idea of building the colonnade for the square, which like two arms stretch out themselves towards the believers. He solved with his brilliant mind the difficult relations among the dome, the facade and the square, exalting the significance of each element.

The Interior

For the visitor who enters in this San Peter's Basilica, the dominant feeling is that of an harmonious greatness notwithstanding the gigantic dimensions.

It holds hundreds of precious work of art, some salvaged from the original 4th century basilica and other commissioned from Renaissance and Baroque artists.

Baldacchino - By Bernini 1624

Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII it is a gigantic baroque bronze structure upheld by spiral marble pillars. Saint Peter's tomb is located under this massive altar.

Michelangelo's Pieta1499-1500

This masterpiece was created by Michelangelo when he was only 25. It was sculptured for the Jubilee of 1500 AD.

As usual, Michelangelo broke with the tradition for representing the Pieta'. To begin with, the Virgin is depicted as younger than her son and her facial expression is pensive and compassionate as if transfixed by an inexpressible grief. The Virgin contemplates the limp body of Christ, lying across her ample cloak.  

The virtuous accuracy of the rendering of the bone structure and inert stiffened muscles of Jesus defies commentary. Here the finish attains an unsurpassable perfection. The surface of the marble is so exquisitely polished that one almost has tactile experience of the texture of his luminous skin.