The inside was extraordinary. There were two pipe organs.
Ceiling:
Ceiling:
Being a Tourist in Italy
Art everywhere.
St. Peter's in the Vatican is next and the last of the churches. St. Peter's will include Pope Francis lying in state. After that I'll move on to the post Roman art and culture found in Rome.
On Monday April 21 our plan was to go the the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Cathedral. We were up early to take the metro to the Vatican and use our skip the line tickets to get in the Museum at 9:00 AM. By the time we were reached the Metro the news was out that the Pope had died. We had no idea what that would mean for our plans. We headed to Vatican City.
The Vatican has a long history in Rome. The hills in this part of the city were outside the walls and across the Tiber, and were called Vaticanum by the wealthy Romans who build their villas there.
The emperor Caligula (third emperor of Rome, 37 – 41 CE) built a large circus there. Nero renamed it after himself. Christian tradition holds that Saint Peter was crucified in Nero’s Circus, which was close to where the Vatican is today.
A basilica was built over the site where St. Peter (the first Pope) was buried. Construction of Constantine’s new basilica began around 319 – 322 CE, and took about 30 years to complete. this drawing shows the relative positions of the circus, the original basilica and the current St. Peter's. Christianity was growing in popularity, and the church became a popular pilgrimage site.
The small shrine that supposedly held the bones of Saint Peter was topped by a canopy with 4 twisted columns from the 2nd century. Twelve more of these columns surrounded the tomb. I'll come back to this.
In 846, Saracen pirates sacked St Peter's Basilica. They were trying for the city, but Rome was impenetrable due to its defensive walls (the Aurelian walls.) The basilica had no protection whatsoever, so it was easier to pillage.
They destroyed St. Peter's tomb and other important parts of the building, stealing the valuable items. Soon thereafter, Pope Leo IV had defensive walls built around the basilica. They created a 2-mile boundary for what would become known as the Leonine City.
The first (old) Basilica St. Peter's.
The 39-foot high walls were called the Leonine Walls. You can still see their remnants. The walls were continually expanded and modified through to the reign of Pope Urban VIII in the 1640s.The Vatican is currently surrounded by high walls.
Here is a modern map of the Vatican. You will notice that the entrance to the museums are quite a distance from St. Peter's Square. The Sistine Chapel is the end point of the Museum tour.
On Monday April 21 our plan was to go the the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Cathedral. We were up early to take the metro to the Vatican and use our skip the line tickets to get in the Museum at 9:00 AM. By the time we were reached the Metro the news was out that the Pope had died. We had no idea what that would mean for our plans. We headed to Vatican City.
The Vatican has a long history in Rome. The hills in this part of the city were outside the walls and across the Tiber, and were called Vaticanum by the wealthy Romans who build their villas there.
The emperor Caligula (third emperor of Rome, 37 – 41 CE) built a large circus there. Nero renamed it after himself. Christian tradition holds that Saint Peter was crucified in Nero’s Circus, which was close to where the Vatican is today.
A basilica was built over the site where St. Peter (the first Pope) was buried. Construction of Constantine’s new basilica began around 319 – 322 CE, and took about 30 years to complete. this drawing shows the relative positions of the circus, the original basilica and the current St. Peter's. Christianity was growing in popularity, and the church became a popular pilgrimage site.
The small shrine that supposedly held the bones of Saint Peter was topped by a canopy with 4 twisted columns from the 2nd century. Twelve more of these columns surrounded the tomb. I'll come back to this.
In 846, Saracen pirates sacked St Peter's Basilica. They were trying for the city, but Rome was impenetrable due to its defensive walls (the Aurelian walls.) The basilica had no protection whatsoever, so it was easier to pillage.
They destroyed St. Peter's tomb and other important parts of the building, stealing the valuable items. Soon thereafter, Pope Leo IV had defensive walls built around the basilica. They created a 2-mile boundary for what would become known as the Leonine City.
The first (old) Basilica St. Peter's.
The 39-foot high walls were called the Leonine Walls. You can still see their remnants. The walls were continually expanded and modified through to the reign of Pope Urban VIII in the 1640s.The Vatican is currently surrounded by high walls.
Here is a modern map of the Vatican. You will notice that the entrance to the museums are quite a distance from St. Peter's Square. The Sistine Chapel is the end point of the Museum tour.
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The old Basilica
Building St. Peter's
Construction of the present basilica, which replaced Old St. Peter’s Basilica in the 4th century AD, began on 18 April 1506, until 18 November 1626. The Pope of the time, Nicholas V, commissioned the restoration of the basilica to Bernardo Rossellino, who wanted to demolish the old church and build a new one. Pope Nicholas V approved the idea, but he died soon after the beginning of its realization. The 7 popes that succeeded him decided to enrich the existing building.
At the beginning of the 1500s, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to sculpt his tomb, so the sculptor created a large, pyramid-shaped monument. The Pontiff liked the masterpiece, but there was not enough space inside the Constantinian church for such a huge tomb. Creating enough space for the funerary monument became one of the main reasons Pope Julius II commissioned the building of the new Basilica. Consequently, Bramante was the architect responsible for the project.
The design on the right was the final one built.
After the death of Raphael, Antonio da Sangallo became the chief architect of the Fabbrica di San Pietro from 1520 to 1546. However, the church had economic difficulties at that period of time. Sangallo continued to work on Bramante’s floor plan to cover the surface of the old Basilica. According to the project, the area was planned to become a sacred ground, and Leo X wanted to include it in the new building.
For this aim, the master positioned the façade between two bell towers and connected them to the main building of the church by a vestibule. Later, at the request of Pope Paul III, Sangallo created a wooden model of the project 4,5-metre-tall, which took 8 years to create for the price of a real church. Nowadays the model is in one of the Basilica’s octagons, located above the four large corner chapels.
After the death of Sangallo, Michelangelo Buonarotti succeeded him. The Florentine artist was over 70 years old and refused the offer of working on the project several times until Pope Paul III forced him to accept it. Michelangelo did not really like the work of his predecessor and decided to demolish several parts that were built before his coming. The master returned to Bramante’s original plan and designed an enormous dome (cupola) as the central element of the new construction.
St. Peter's Square from the dome.
The building took 120 years.
Building St. Peter's
Construction of the present basilica, which replaced Old St. Peter’s Basilica in the 4th century AD, began on 18 April 1506, until 18 November 1626. The Pope of the time, Nicholas V, commissioned the restoration of the basilica to Bernardo Rossellino, who wanted to demolish the old church and build a new one. Pope Nicholas V approved the idea, but he died soon after the beginning of its realization. The 7 popes that succeeded him decided to enrich the existing building.
At the beginning of the 1500s, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to sculpt his tomb, so the sculptor created a large, pyramid-shaped monument. The Pontiff liked the masterpiece, but there was not enough space inside the Constantinian church for such a huge tomb. Creating enough space for the funerary monument became one of the main reasons Pope Julius II commissioned the building of the new Basilica. Consequently, Bramante was the architect responsible for the project.
The design on the right was the final one built.
The building process became in 1506, but between 1513 and 1514 both Pope Julius II and Bramante died, leaving the construction with 4 enormous pillars for the dome support. The next pontiff, Leo X, commissioned Raphael to continue the project, but the young artist died at the age of 37, and his project wasn’t realized. Importantly, Raphael’s Basilica was to have a Latin-cross shape with interior features composed of the play between light and shadow.
After the death of Raphael, Antonio da Sangallo became the chief architect of the Fabbrica di San Pietro from 1520 to 1546. However, the church had economic difficulties at that period of time. Sangallo continued to work on Bramante’s floor plan to cover the surface of the old Basilica. According to the project, the area was planned to become a sacred ground, and Leo X wanted to include it in the new building.
For this aim, the master positioned the façade between two bell towers and connected them to the main building of the church by a vestibule. Later, at the request of Pope Paul III, Sangallo created a wooden model of the project 4,5-metre-tall, which took 8 years to create for the price of a real church. Nowadays the model is in one of the Basilica’s octagons, located above the four large corner chapels.
After the death of Sangallo, Michelangelo Buonarotti succeeded him. The Florentine artist was over 70 years old and refused the offer of working on the project several times until Pope Paul III forced him to accept it. Michelangelo did not really like the work of his predecessor and decided to demolish several parts that were built before his coming. The master returned to Bramante’s original plan and designed an enormous dome (cupola) as the central element of the new construction.
St. Peter's Square from the dome.
Michelangelo was inspired by the cupola of the Duomo of Florence and the Pantheon, designed by Brunelleschi. When he died, the new Basilica missed the corner chapels, the façade, and the cupola, of which only the columns and drum had been finished. In 1587, Giacomo Della Porta became responsible for completing the dome with his assistant, Domenico Fontana. After two years of work, the cupola was finally completed.
The building took 120 years.
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Back to the story. Upon exiting the San Pietro metro station there were already crowds heading to the Vatican. We heard that because of the Pope's death that the Museums would be closed today. Hearing that, we changed our plans and decided to head straight to St. Peters. The city of Rome knows how to handle crowds visiting the Vatican. This map shows the path from the metro to St, Peters as a blue line. Barriers and police showed up a couple of blocks from the metro and got tighter and more controlling the closer we got to the Square (#3). We reached the square about 8:30. Ten minutes later we were a few yards from the doors. My phone rang. It was our "guide" who had our skip the line to get us into the Vatican Museums. They were not closed. Where were we? We had timed tickets for 9:00. The entrance to the museum was not close. See the red X on the map. The red line shows the shortest path to the entrance from the square. The path runs along one of the high walls that surround the Vatican. The line to get into the Vatican museums follows that same wall and at 8:45 AM that day, the end of the line was already at the square. We raced (for me not too fast) all the way to the entrance and used our phones and selfies to find our guide among the hugely crowded entrance area. We were late, but our guide got us in the door, through security and into the museum. She then left to meet her next set of clients.
Lesson: Get skip the line tickets (no museum guide included) Treat your guide well, be on time and thank them. You may only see them for 10-15 minutes, but they are saving your hours of standing in line.
That was the story Monday morning. On Thursday the Pope was lying in state and while neither my friend nor i are Catholic, it seems a mistake to miss the opportunity to see the Pope even if he was dead. We also would use this chance to see the inside of St. Peters. We left the Metro again around 7:30 AM and joined the already existing crowds. Many were in groups led by a leader with a flag of some sort. The City of Rome was ready. Police and barriers were already in place.
St. Peter's Dome in in the background.
The police had multiple lines that came from different directions and joined each other at various points.
Here the line is moving pretty quickly along the Vatican wall.
Inside St. Peter's Square. the square is so huge that the thousands in it in line are hardly noticeable.
St. Peter's Dome in in the background.
The police had multiple lines that came from different directions and joined each other at various points.
Here the line is moving pretty quickly along the Vatican wall.
Inside St. Peter's Square. the square is so huge that the thousands in it in line are hardly noticeable.
The entry line moves to the right side of the building. The exit line can barely be seen near the big screen on the left. The darker grey areas behind the obelisk aare the chairs set out for the Saturday funeral.
The Vatican Obelisk is an Egyptian obelisk, one of the thirteen ancient obelisks of Rome. This obelisk is located in St. Peter's Square, in Vatican City. It is the only ancient obelisk in Rome that has never fallen.
Made of red granite, it has a height of 25.3 meters and, together with the cross and the base (composed of four bronze lions, by Prospero Antichi), it reaches almost 40 meters.
It is of Egyptian origin, devoid of any hieroglyphs and titles. Thus, it's unknown if the obelisk had its inscriptions erased before being moved to Rome, or if it was originally incomplete and never inscribed to begin with. The obelisk comes, according to Pliny, from the city of Heliopolis on the Nile. Before coming to Rome, it stood at the Forum Iulii of Alexandria in Egypt. Emperor Caligula had it shipped to Rome in 40 AD, and placed it at the center of the Circus of Nero, the site of which is, in modern times, mostly in Vatican City. It remained in this position after the circus fell into disuse, occupied by a necropolis. In the 16th century it was moved next to the Old St. Peter's Basilica, at the Rotonda di Sant'Andrea.
History
Moving of the obelisk - the left hand side shows the Obelisk topped by the globe, as it stood next to Old St. Peter's Basilica, whilst the right hand side shows the Obelisk after its relocation, with the cross atop it.
Having stood in the same location in Rome since c.40 AD, it was moved almost 800 feet at the behest of Pope Sixtus V in a single day on September 10, 1586. The work was carried out under the direction of the architect Domenico Fontana who required thirteen months of preparatory work, 800 men, 160 horses and 45 winches to carry out the work. It was the first of Rome's obelisks to be raised in modern times. In the uplift operations there was a famous cry of a certain sailor Benedetto Bresca: Acqua alle funi ("Water on the ropes!"), in order to avoid the breakage of the ropes that were about to give in under the great weight of the obelisk.
The paving is varied by radiating lines in travertine, to relieve what might otherwise be a sea of setts. 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.
According to the Lateran Treaty the area of St. Peter's Square is subject to the authority of Italian police for crowd control even though it is a part of the Vatican state.
Getting closer.
To put all this into perspective here is a helpful picture.
St. Peter's Sq. leads into the cathedral with its long arm of the cross shape leading to the dome. Parallel to that long arm and just to the left of it is a tallish looking, rectangular building with a pitched roof and a several stores façade facing toward the bottom of the picture. It looks stand alone. That is the Sistine Chapel. Further to the left are two long courtyards encased by the Vatican Museums whose entrance is out of the picture to the left.
St. Peter's Sq. leads into the cathedral with its long arm of the cross shape leading to the dome. Parallel to that long arm and just to the left of it is a tallish looking, rectangular building with a pitched roof and a several stores façade facing toward the bottom of the picture. It looks stand alone. That is the Sistine Chapel. Further to the left are two long courtyards encased by the Vatican Museums whose entrance is out of the picture to the left.
Entering through the Holy Doors
Voidwalkin
Emperor
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The count displacing the power of the local clerical magistrates did not really happen in Rome the same way it did in many other parts of Europe, probably because the Franks never ruled Rome directly.
It sorta leaves Rome feeling like this deeply weird, exceptional place. I can see the remnants of the city state that defeated the Latin League and became a hegemony, which celebrated triumph over its foes with gladiatorial combat and ritual execution of rival leaders surrounded by big time Saturnalia. And from that collapse springs up this religious institution securing wealth and power far beyond its actual military reach simply by leveraging symbolism of the past into a more limited form of leadership in a religious sphere. Made Augustus' man Agrippa's big building into a church.
Both feel cult-y to me. Really make Rome its unique animal. It's like something out of WH40k to me. Really interesting art but the history and social themes behind its production I personally find pretty dark commentary.
It sorta leaves Rome feeling like this deeply weird, exceptional place. I can see the remnants of the city state that defeated the Latin League and became a hegemony, which celebrated triumph over its foes with gladiatorial combat and ritual execution of rival leaders surrounded by big time Saturnalia. And from that collapse springs up this religious institution securing wealth and power far beyond its actual military reach simply by leveraging symbolism of the past into a more limited form of leadership in a religious sphere. Made Augustus' man Agrippa's big building into a church.
Both feel cult-y to me. Really make Rome its unique animal. It's like something out of WH40k to me. Really interesting art but the history and social themes behind its production I personally find pretty dark commentary.
Hmmm...Maybe WH40k sprang from the history of Rome? One did come before the other by a few centuries IIRC.
Keep in mind just how long Rome's history was. 500 years of expansion before the Empire; 300 years of pagan Empire before Christianity became official, and then another 300 years of slow decline in the west. I had over 1000 years of conquest, expansion and decline that were full of significant and ongoing change. In addition during those years it was changing everything it touched along its borders. After Rome fell apart the Catholic church had another ~1000 years before the Reformation. Over simplification and downsizing such a history into a game does history a disservice. What is pretty amazing is that so much of those 2500 years is still around in a single place.
Thorgalaeg
Deity
If there was a center of the world it would be Rome IMO.
Funny there is a railway station in the Vatican. Is it still in service?
Funny there is a railway station in the Vatican. Is it still in service?
For the western world you might be right. I'm not sure it applies once Asia is brought into the picture.
I noticed the RR too.
wiki: The Vatican Railway (Italian: Ferrovia Vaticana) was opened in 1934 to serve Vatican City and its only station, Vatican City (Città del Vaticano , or Stazione Vaticana. The main rail tracks are standard gauge and 300 metres (980 ft) long, with two freight sidings, making it the shortest national railway system in the world. Access to the Italian rail network is over a viaduct to Roma San Pietro railway station, and is guaranteed by the Lateran Treaty dating from 1929. The tracks and station were constructed during the reign of Pope Pius XI, shortly after the treaty.
Beginning in 2015, one passenger service runs each Saturday morning with passengers for Castel Gandolfo. Most other rail traffic consists of inbound freight goods, although the railway has occasionally carried other passengers, usually for symbolic or ceremonial reasons
Inside St. Peter's.
In line looking sown the center aisle of the basilica.
Off to one side
The floor showing one of the air vents.
Almost there.
In line looking sown the center aisle of the basilica.
Off to one side
The floor showing one of the air vents.
Almost there.
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Pope Francis
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You can see clearly four twisted columns that date to the second century. Peter tomb is thought to be under the small canopy held up by the four columns. the Pope's body is jsut to the right.
The ceiling.
Under the St. Peter's Dome.
Under the St. Peter's Dome.
Having viewed Pope Francis there was no push to have visitors exit. Parts of the basilica were off limits but others were open to walking around. The Pieta sculpture is near the entrance doors and because of the constrained line, not accessible. The Apse behind the main altar (over St. Peter's tomb) was open and a service was being held in front of the altar there.
The first video is me getting into position keep recording and the service part is mostly just the priest intoning in Latin.
This second video records some of the music and singing. Without a doubt beautiful. going full screen on these improves what you see.
The first video is me getting into position keep recording and the service part is mostly just the priest intoning in Latin.
This second video records some of the music and singing. Without a doubt beautiful. going full screen on these improves what you see.
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Once outside again, here is St. Peter's Square. The chairs for the funeral are in place and across the square you can see the line of people waiting to go inside. The crowd on the exit side is unorganized.
While in the square my friend noticed one of guards and wanted a picture of her with him. She decided she needed direction somewhere and he spoke enough English to provide them. I took pictures for her album. He was really tall and carried a big gun.. 
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