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It's Monday, so this must be the Vatican...
| Piazzo San Pietro |
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In A.D. 324, Emperor Constantine the Great built a santuary over
the tomb of St. Peter, who had been crucified in A.D. 64 in Nero's Circus on the west bank of the Tiber. A basilica
was completed 25 years later. This church was pillaged by Alaric the Goth in 410. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned
Charlemagne king of the Romans. Later, the popes crowned each Holy Roman Emperor in St. Peter's Basilica. The
early popes lived in the Lateran Palace in the southern part of Rome, but after they returned from Avignon in 1377, they moved
to the Vatican, near St. Peter's. By the 15th century St. Peter's was almost falling down. Pope Nicholas
V was the first to plan for a new basilica. In 1503, Julius II commissioned Bramante to design the new church.
The first stone was laid on April 18, 1506. Michelangelo also took an interest in the new church, and in 1547, Paul
III asked him to supervise the construction. It was Michelangelo who designed the great dome. Finally, Bernini
completed the church, and in 1656 he began to construct the great square in front of the church.
| Papal Apartments |
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The papal apartment is located on the top floor of this building
(last window on the right). The pope is the absolute ruler of the Vatican, the smallest independent country in the world.
The Vatican city-state was created by the Lateran Treaty of 1929. Prior to 1870, the pope ruled a large area surrounding
Rome. In that year, troops of the new Kingdom of Italy stormed the city and made Rome the capital of the kingdom.
The popes locked themselves up in the Vatican for the next 59 years, until the Vatican State was created.
| Nave of St. Peter's |
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St. Peter's is the largest church in the world. While the
proportions are such that the church does not completely overwhelm the senses, its sheer size is quickly apparent.
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