Piazza di San Pietro, 00120 Vatican City, Italy

The vast cathedral of St Peter, Rome – Reviewed 25 April 2013

Stepping inside the main doors of St Peter’s Basilica, noisy hoards of tourists are stunned into silence, looking up and dropping their bottom jaw as they contemplate the sheer size and grandeur of this building.

The eyes are drawn from the huge, ornate marble pillars upwards to the soaring barrel-shaped ceiling that is heavily decorated with gold.

Every detail of the building is not merely architecture but is art and craft as well, from the vast marble inlaid floors to the decorated glass caskets holding the macabre clothed bodies of various ‘saints’.

The church is named for St Peter, the apostle chosen to found the church, and who was martyred by crucifixion in Rome close to the site.

History
The site of St Peter’s Basilica has been a Christian church since the fourth century.

The current building dates from the 1500s and is one of the largest and greatest Renaissance buildings in the world.

The length of the nave of the church is boasted via measurements set out in the floor indicating the sizes of other major churches around the world.

Its large dome, the tallest in the world, dominates the skyline of Rome.

From the ground, the cross on the top of the dome stands 136.57 metres high, (almost 500 feet)

Its internal diametre of the dome is 41.47metres, slightly smaller than the dome of the Pantheon in Rome and the dome of Florence cathedral. Visited September 2012.