St. Peter's Square

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St. Peter's Square, Vatican City

St. Peter's Square (Italian: Piazza San Pietro, Latin: Forum Sancti Petri, pronounced [ˌpi̯aʦa san ˈpi̯ɛːtɾo]) is a massive plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, the papal enclave surrounded by Rome, directly west of the neighbourhood or rione of Borgo.

At the centre of the square is a four-thousand-year-old Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1568. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later, including the massive Tuscan colonnades, four columns deep, which embrace visitors in "the maternal arms of Mother Church." A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno dating to 1613.

History

The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). Bernini had been working on the interior of St. Peter's for decades; now he gave order to the space with his renowned colonnades, using the Tuscan form of Doric, the simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the palace-like façade by Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and evoke emotions of awe.

The site's possibilities were under many constraints from existing structures (illustration, right). The massed accretions of the Vatican Palace crowded the space to the right of the basilica's façade; the structures needed to be masked without obscuring the papal apartments. The obelisk marked a centre, and a granite fountain by Carlo Maderno[1] stood to one side: Bernini made the fountain appear to be one of the foci of the ovato tondo[2] embraced by his colonnades and eventually matched it on the other side, in 1675, just five years before his death. The trapezoidal shape of the piazza, which creates a heightened perspective for a visitor leaving the basilica and has been praised as a masterstroke of Baroque theater (illustration, below right), is largely a product of site constraints.

St. Peter's Square and Basilica, 1909
St. Peter's Square and Basilica, 1909

Colonnades

St. Peter's Square colonnades

The colossal Tuscan colonnades, four columns deep,[3] frame the trapezoidal entrance to the basilica and the massive elliptical area[4] which precedes it. The ovato tondo's long axis, parallel to the basilica's façade, creates a pause in the sequence of forward movements that is characteristic of a Baroque monumental approach. The colonnades define the piazza. The elliptical centre of the piazza, which contrasts with the trapezoidal entrance, encloses the visitor with "the maternal arms of Mother Church" in Bernini's expression. On the south side, the colonnades define and formalize the space, with the Barberini Gardens still rising to a skyline of umbrella pines. On the north side, the colonnade masks an assortment of Vatican structures; the upper stories of the Vatican Palace rise above.

Obelisk

At the center of the ovato tondo stands an Egyptian obelisk of red granite, 25.5 metres tall, supported on bronze lions and surmounted by the Chigi arms in bronze, in all 41 metres to the cross on its top. The obelisk was originally erected at Heliopolis by an unknown pharaoh of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt (c. 2494 BC – 2345 BC). During its history of c. 4400 years (at the start of the 2010s), the obelisk has been successfully moved 3 times.

St. Peter's Square obelisk

The Emperor Augustus (c. 63 BC – 14 AD) had it moved to the Julian Forum of Alexandria, where it stood until 37 A.D., when Caligula ordered the forum demolished and the obelisk transferred to Rome. He had it placed on the spina which ran along the centre of the Circus of Nero, where it would preside over Nero's countless brutal games and Christian executions.

It was moved to its current site in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana under the direction of Pope Sixtus V; the engineering feat of re-erecting its vast weight was memorialized in a suite of engravings (illustrated right). The Vatican Obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since ancient Roman times. During the Middle Ages, the gilt ball on top of the obelisk was believed to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar.[5] Fontana later removed the ancient metal ball, now in a Rome museum, that stood atop the obelisk and found only dust. Christopher Hibbert (page 178) writes that the ball was found to be solid. Though Bernini had no influence in the erection of the obelisk, he did use it as the centerpiece of his magnificent piazza.

Paving

The paving is varied by radiating lines in travertine, to relieve what might otherwise be a sea of cobblestones. In 1817 circular stones were set to mark the tip of the obelisk's shadow at noon as the sun entered each of the signs of the zodiac, making the obelisk a gigantic sundial's gnomon. Below is a view of St. Peter's Square from the cupola (the top of the dome) which was taken in June, 2007.

View of Rome from the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica, June 2007
View of Rome from the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica, June 2007

Spina

St. Peter's Square today can be reached from the Ponte Sant'Angelo along the grand approach of the Via della Conciliazione (in honor of the Lateran Treaty of 1929). The spina (median with buildings) which once occupied this grand avenue leading to the square was demolished ceremonially by Benito Mussolini himself on October 23, 1936 and was completely demolished by October 8, 1937. St. Peter's Basilica was now freely visible from the Castel Sant'Angelo. The effect of its demolition, however, was to destroy the characteristic Baroque surprise. The Via della Conciliazione was completed in time for the Great Jubilee of 1950.

St. Peter's Square (facing St. Peter's Basilica), and the obelisk from the Circus of Nero

Gallery

  • St. Peter's Square fountain

  • St. Peter's Square colonnades and fountain

  • St. Peter's Square colonnades and lanterns

  • St. Peter's Square from the dome

  • Statues on the colonnades

  • St. Peter's Square by Viviano Codazzi, 1630

  • Bernini's fountain, 1675

  • Re-erection of the obelisk in 1586 took thirteen months

  • Re-erection of the obelisk

See also

References

  1. ↑ It was set up in 1613 by order of Paul V
  2. ↑ The actual foci are marked in the paving by roundels of stone six or seven metres beyond the outer ring of the compass rose centred on the obelisk, on either side. When the visitor stands on one, the ranks of columns line up perfectly behind one another. (Touring Club Italiano, Roma e Dintorni).
  3. ↑ There are 248 columns and 88 pilasters; 140 over lifesize saints crown the cornice; the coats of arms are of Alexander VII.
  4. ↑ The ovato tondo is 240 metres across.
  5. ↑ Touring Club Italiano, Roma e Dintorni, which furnishes the statistics in these notes.

Further reading

  • Hibbert, Christopher, 1985, Rome: The biography of a city, London, Penguin.
  • Norwich, John Julius, ed. 1975 Great Architecture of the World ISBN 0-394-49887-9
  • Touring Club Italiano, Roma e Dintorni

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piazza San Pietro.
External video
Bernini's St. Peter's Square, Smarthistory
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Coordinates: 41°54′8″N 12°27′23″E / 41.90222°N 12.45639°E / 41.90222; 12.45639

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