The Capital of the Catholic Church: St. Peter's Basilica
- Elizabeth Messing
- Jun 1
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 1
By: Elizabeth Messing
The pope is the leader of the Catholic Church, but where does he lead from? The pope lives in a country called Vatican City and leads mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and in St. Peter’s Square.
The architectural history of St. Peter’s Basilica is a long one. Pope Nicholas V proposed the idea of rebuilding the Old St. Peter’s Basilica after seeing its condition, but construction didn’t begin until 1506 when Pope Julius II placed the first stone. They originally planned to build the basilica in the form of a Greek cross, which is a cross with four sides of equal length, as Donato Bramante designed. Raphael, Fra Giovanni Giocondo, and Giuliano Sangallo altered the original plan to a Latin cross, but Antonio da Sangallo the Younger returned it to the Greek cross plan.
After Sangallo’s death, Paul III appointed Michaelangelo as head architect. By 1564 when Michaelangelo passed, the builders had completed the up-right portion of the dome, also known as the drum. After the dome was completed, Paul V followed Carlos Maderno’s plan of a Latin cross for the building by elongating the nave, which completed the 615 foot long structure. In 1615, Paul V completed the structure under his papacy.
In the papal tombs lay the bodies of 90 out of 267 popes like the first pope, Saint Peter, and relics of many saints like Saint Luke. Four other relics are or once were held within the basilica including the Veil of Veronica, a segment of the True Cross, a piece of the Holy Lance, and St. Andrew the Apostle’s skull. Gian Lorenzo Bernini inserted these relics into loggias in the columns that hold up the dome and were decorated with a marble statue depicting the relic. The Veil of Veronica shown by a statue of her waving the cloth, St. Andrew the Apostle’s skull represented by a statue of him with his ‘X’ shaped cross, the Holy Lance with a statue of St. Longinus—the Roman centurion who used a lance to pierce Jesus’ side—holding a lance, and the True Cross portrays St. Helen—mother of Constantine and who is presumed to have discovered the True Cross—with a large cross behind her. Each cavity additionally showcases two columns wrapped with vine leaves that were previously part of the old basilica.
Outside of the basilica in St. Peter’s Square, the piazza features statues of 140 saints. Although they were most commonly created by Lazzaro Morelli and Giovanni Maria de Rossi, many other artists contributed to the collection. Numerous statues are of saints that are well known like St. Anthony, St. Mark, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Joseph. Countless of the saints depicted were also martyrs similar to St. Gallicanus, who can be found at the right side of the north front entrance.
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