St Peters Basilica

ST PETERS BASILICA
St Peters Basilica is the second most important basilica among the five major basilicas of Rome and its Vatican City enclave. It is the second largest church in Christianity covering an area of 5.7 acres with a capacity of over sixty thousand people. One of the holiest sites of Christendom, it is the burial site of basilica namesake Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, first Bishop of Antioch, and later first Bishop of Rome. History states that St Peters tomb is below the baldachino and altar. Because of this many Popes have been buried there too. The current basilica was completed in 1626 and it was built over the Constantinian basilica.

Construction started on the basilica in 1505 under Pope Julius II and was completed in 1615 under Pope Paul V. Donato Bramante was the first chief architect and many famous artists worked on the "Fabbrica di San Pietro". Michelangelo who was the main architect for a while, designed the dome. After the death of Julius II construction of the basilica stopped until Pope Paul III asked Michelangelo to design the rest of the church. Following Michelangelo's death his student Giacomo della Porta continued with the unfinished portions of the church. At a later stage Carlo Maderno became the chief architect and designed the entrance to the basilica.

In 1939 workers made a stunning discovery whilst renovating the grottoes beneath St Peters which was the traditional burial area of the Popes. Just below the floor level they discovered an ancient Roman grave. However it soon became clear that there was not just one grave but an entire city of the dead. After many months of digging the excavators came to a section of older graves which were near the area underneath the high altar. Directly beneath the altar they found a very large burial site with a red painted wall. In a niche connected to that wall they found the bones of a man. It was not until 1968, some thirty years later, that Pope Paul VI announced the bones of the man belonged to St Peter himself.