This last December, I was working at my computer when I looked up to see on television Pope Benedict XVI delivering the Christmas mass inside the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter, which immediately brought back memories of attending an exhibit in San Diego a few years ago (in 2004) at the museum complex known as Balboa Park : “St. Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes.” It was a fascinating look at over 353 objects taken from the Vatican collections and other objects; at least two thirds of which were objects of history, rare documents, altar items, art works, and so on, that haven’t ever been displayed for visitors to the Vatican. In the exhibit over a half decade ago, I saw works I would never see if I traveled to a Rome hotel and visited Vatican City for myself; however, there was one thing in Rome that I would never be able to see in a traveling exhibit in San Diego, and that’s St. Peter’s Basilica itself, perhaps the most impressive building in the world.
While I’ve seen my share of cathedrals, including St. Paul’s in London, I’ve yet to set eyes on St. Peter’s (although technically, this isn’t a cathedral because it’s not a seat of bishop; technically, it’s a papal basilica), and it’s perhaps the one place I’d most like to see in person, just for the architecture and the art work alone, and to feel the true size of the place: The basilica is capable of holding within it sixty thousand people. Traditionally, St. Peter is buried here, and in that sense is one of the grandest tombs ever built for a person (unless, perhaps, you consider the Pyramids; however, in a comparison, while impressive, they’re still pretty plain).
While a church has been on this site since the fourth century, the present basilica began construction in April of 1506 and took one hundred and twenty years to complete, on November 18th, 1626. The dome is prominent on Rome’s skyline, although its contained in one of the three city-states remaining in the world (the other two are Singapore and Monaco), rising to height of 448 feet from the floor to top of the external cross, and is the tallest dome in the world. The internal diameter is about 136 feet and is a little smaller than two of the other three domes that came before it: the domes from the Pantheon of Ancient Rome, from the Florence Cathedral from the Early Renaissance, and from Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia church from the 6th Century.
Perhaps next Christmas, finances permitting, I will have had a chance to see the basilica myself, and to witness the awe-inspiring architecture that architects and artists (and a century’s worth of work) are capable of creating.