| What makes it historical? |
In AD 64, this site was actually a circus, or chariot track, built by Caligula, and here, it’s widely believed, the Emperor Nero crucified St. Peter upside down! It took three centuries before the Emperor Constantine gave the go-ahead to build a basilica for the saint. It took five years to build, from 324 to 329 AD, and it was here that Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 AD!
The original basilica fell to disrepair during the Avignon schism between 1309 and 1377, and two hundred years later, there was no choice but to tear it down and start from scratch! That was the task of Donato Bramante, who laid out a new basilica in the form of a Greek cross, but died only eight years into construction! That led to forty whole years of arguments over how construction should proceed! Raphael and Michelangelo both had a go at it, but the final design fell to Carlo Maderno, who shifted toward a Latin Cross shape, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who designed the huge square that draws attention to the world’s tallest dome! The basilica was completed in 1626, one hundred and twenty years after construction began!
Today, St. Peter’s Basilica houses over 100 tombs, of which 91 are popes! The rest are tombs of kings and queens who were politically or spiritually aligned with the Catholic Church! At the entrance, there is a Holy Door, which is only opened during certain years, like Jubilee Years, and passing through it is believed to grant folks a free pass into Heaven! The Basilica is also home to Michelangelo’s famed marble sculpture, Pietá, and Arnolfo di Cambio’s bronze St. Peter Enthroned, whose foot is supposed to bring you luck if you kiss it! |
