Get us to the Basilica!

On Monday, we visited St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Coliseum. it was a pretty warm day in Rome, so we were grateful that the tour company has access to entrances to bypass the very long lines of dedicated visitors who probably stood in line in the hot sun for up to two hours for these famous Roman sights. 

Our first stop was St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Basilica is situated within Vatican City and was designed by the most talented artists of the Late Renaissance era, which included Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Mademo and Gian Lorezno Bernini.  Bernini in particular is well represented in Rome with his fabulous fountains and statues. The history of the Basilica goes back to 4th Century when Constantine covered part of the northern sector of the circus of Caligula and Nero and part of the necropolis, leaving intact the tomb of Peter, for whom Constantine dedicated the Basilica. Over the next few hundred years, popes, rulers, and conquerors added to the Basilica, so it was in 1506 that Bramante embarked on the reconstruction of the church with the aide of the masters mentioned above. Below is one of the ancient entrances, followed by photos inside the church -- the beautiful sculptures, mosaics, marble, etc:

Where we entered - the lines outside waiting to get in were very long - our tour guide moved us through pretty quickly!

This is Pope Francis' altar.

One of many Berninis - see the skeleton below - this was for a pope's crypt.

Just a tiny example of the floor mosaics - yellow marble was so very rare.

 

Below is the Bramante staircase -- we were permitted rare access:

 

 

 

 

One of the views at the top of the staircase.

One more artwork to point out that is inside the Basilica:  The Pieta, below, was sculpted by Michelangelo, who completed the project without a sketch, without a model, and without a small model of the work – he simply began carving and completed it from the design created in his mind. The work, below, depicts the holy mother Mary holding her dead son, Jesus:

 

Interestingly, this was the only piece that Michelango ever signed – he was worried that for all the adulation the work received that he would not receive appropriate credit, so he snuck in one time to write his name and was so nervous, he misspelled his own name and ended up adding an “e” inside the “o”.