St. Peter’s Basilica

While I might have been under whelmed when I entered into the Sistine Chapel, I was the complete opposite when I entered St. Peter’s, it was everything I had expected it to be and more. It was beautiful and amazing and holy. As we walked in the narthex, we tried to just take it all in.

The current building was commissioned in the middle of the 15th century, when the old basilica was falling into ruin and pope Nicolas V ordered the restoration and enlargement of the church after plans by Bernardo Rossellino. After Nicolas V died, works were halted. In 1506 pope Julius II laid the first stone of a new basilica which was to become the largest in the world. Julius II appointed Donato Bramante as the chief architect of the new Basilica. In 1547 Michelangelo succeeded Bramante. He designed the imposing dome and altered some of the original plans. Michelangelo died in 1624, two years before the St. Peter's basilica was dedicated by pope Urban VIII.

The Basilica of St. Peter is the most prominent building inside the Vatican City. Its dome is a dominant feature of the skyline of Rome. It covers an area of 2.3 hectares (5.7 acres) and has a capacity of over 60,000 people. The largest church in the world, it has a 218 meter long nave. The basilica's dome is the world's largest measuring 42m in diameter and reaching 138 meter high (more than 450ft). The interior, which includes 45 altars, is decorated by famous artists. Some of the most important works in the church are the Pietà by Michelangelo, the papal altar by Bernini, the Throne of St. Peter - also by Bernini - and the Monument to the Stuarts by Canova.

We stopped in the narthex to take some pictures of the nave. The picture does not begin to do it justice.

Me standing in the nave. Shannon in the nave – (the sweater is a long story) Here we are together. We started walking up towards the high alter and on the way we came across St. Joseph’s alter. This is where mass is held on a daily basis, which I had missed, and during non mass times it serves as a place to pray. Shannon knew I was disappointed about missing mass and asked if I wanted to spend some time in prayer and she would go look around. I was very appreciative that she did not mind and I went in and found a pew. I know it does not matter where you are when you petition God in prayer, but I find in places such as this it feels more special. I am not sure if it is just knowing that millions of people had been there before me, praying to the same God or Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (NIV) But I found it to be a moving experience. After some time I left St. Joseph’s alter and found Shannon.

This is inside of one of the peripheral domes.

The Basilica is centered around the Papal Altar where only the Pope celebrates Mass. It was consecrated by Clement VIII, June 5, 1594, on top of several other older altars. Rising above the altar is the baldacchino (95ft. canopy), Bernini's masterpiece and first work in St. Peter's. The ancient tomb of St. Peter lies directly below the altar.

This is the Papal Altar

This is an ancient bronze statue of St. Peter. Behind the statue is a mosaic that looks like a fine brocade draping. At the top of the mosaic is a portrait of Pope Pius IX. This is the interior of the main dome. This is the The Tribune - Altar of the Chair of St. Peter

This grandiose sculpture monument was created to enclose the wooden throne of St Peter. The four gigantic statues of Doctors of the Church are: St. Ambrose, St. Anthanasius (left); and St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine (right). The fine alabaster window shows the Holy Spirit as a dove.

Here is a statue of St. Francis of Paola. Here I am in front of the Papal Altar Here is Shannon The ceiling of the Nave. This is the monument to Pius VIII. The Pope is show kneeling, accompanied by a statue of Christ enthroned, with statues of Sts. Peter and Paul. The allegories are Prudence and Justice.
The top of the Papal Altar and part of the ceiling above it. This is one of the carvings in the base of the Papal Altar This is the Altar of the Scared Heart This is the Altar of St. Leo the Great After we spent time admiring the beautiful basilica we left St. Peter’s and Vatican City.

St. Peter’s Square

Saint Peter's Square is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome. The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace"

St. Peter’s square is actually an elliptical or circular space enclosed by large colonnades - a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature (superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns), often free-standing.

The colonnades in St. Peter’s consist of 284 Doric columns and 88 pilasters of travertine marble. These columns, 13m. tall, are arranged in four rows. With the trabeation surmounted by a balustrade, the overall height is 21m. Bernini built two straight covered wings (Charlemagne left, Constantine right) 120 m. long, to link with the basilica's façade.

On the colonnades there are 140 statues of saints. Here is a section of the colonnades. Here is another section.

At the center of the ellipse stands an Egyptian obelisk of red granite, 25.5 meters tall, supported on bronze lions and surmounted by the Chigi arms in bronze, in all 41 meters to the cross on its top. It was originally erected at Heliopolis by an unknown pharaoh of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt. The Emperor Augustus had it moved to the Julian Forum of Alexandria, where it stood until year 37 A.D., when Caligula ordered the forum demolished and the obelisk transferred to Rome. He placed it in the center of the Circus, where it would preside over Nero's countless brutal games and Christian executions. It was moved to its current site in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana under the direction of Pope Sixtus V; the engineering feat of re-erecting its vast weight was memorialized in a suite of engravings. The Vatican Obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since ancient Roman times.

Here is the obelisk in the center of the square. There are also two fountains in the square. One was there when Bernini was commissioned to redesign the square, so he used that as part of the focal point of the square, but added a second matching one on the opposite side of the obelisk to add symmetry to the square.

This is one of the fountains. The façade of St. Peter’s Basilica makes up the front section of the square. Here is Shannon standing in front of where the colonnades met the façade. Just behind this section is where the doors to the Apostolic Palace. Here is the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica. This is a statue of St. Paul in front of the façade. The day before we were here the Pope had canonized five new saints and St. Peter’s Square had seating set up for those attending that ceremony. Those chairs and screens were still up in the plaza. Here are some shots of the plaza looking out from the basilica.
The Swiss Guard is the military force in charge of keeping the pope safe and the security of the Apostolic Palace, which makes them the de facto military of Vatican City. To be considered for the Swiss Guard recruits must be Catholic, single males with Swiss citizenship who have completed basic training with the Swiss military and can obtain certificates of good conduct. Recruits must have a professional degree or high school diploma and must be between 19 and 30 years of age and at least 174 cm (5.71 ft) tall.

The Swiss Guard is very recognizable by their extremely colorful uniforms. Here are some pictures of the Swiss Guard on duty in St. Peter’s Square.

The Vatican Post Office

After we left the Sistine Chapel there were a few more small rooms to go through. Here we saw this crucifix. And this stained window. Once we had completed the tour of the Vatican Museums we returned our headsets and headed to the gift shop. One of my co-workers had asked me if I could pick up a rosary for her and of course I wanted to get something for myself. Shannon also wanted to get some stuff. As we started to look around Shannon decided she wanted to get some rosaries for her family. We started to look at the glass bead rosaries and they were so pretty. We were trying to decide which color to get, which ones we liked better, and then I found this rosewood one. The beads were red and carved into roses and smelled sweet. Once I saw that one, I was sold and that was the one I got. Shan ended up getting that one as well along with a couple of the colored ones. I found a magnet for myself and we got in line to check out.

While we were waiting in line there was this woman looking at these silver and either black onyx or hematite beads. She was trying to decide how many to purchase and holding up the line. They were absolutely gorgeous, and if my currency conversion was correct about $200 each. I am not sure how many she got, but her total was well into the thousands. Once she checked out, the line moved quickly, and we were on our way.

One of Shannon’s co-workers asked her to get a Vatican stamp. We were trying to figure out where to find the stamp when we saw a sign for the Vatican post office. I had no idea that they had their own Post Office – it makes sense, but I had never thought about it before.

The Vatican post office has operated its own postal service and issued its own postage stamps since 1929. Much, but by no means all, of the mail handled by the Vatican is from tourists or official congregations of the Roman Curia. Many Romans, distrustful of the unreliable Italian post office, make weekly trips to the Vatican just to post their important letters. Italian stamps may not be used on Vatican mail nor vice versa. According to the Universal Postal Union, the Vatican post office is "one of the best postal systems in the world" and "more letters are sent each year, per inhabitant, from the Vatican's 00120 postal code than from anywhere else in the world."

There was not much of a line and we quickly got a stamp. I did not mail anything from the post office, but will have to next time.

After that, we left the Vatican Museum complex to go back to St. Peter’s square and into St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Sistine Chapel

By this point it was after 12:00 p.m. and I had missed the last mass of the morning. I was disappointed, but it would have been difficult to leave the museums and come back and I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. Plus it just gives me a reason to come back someday.

We were nearing the Sistine Chapel we had to go up these stairs.

Again just another simple staircase. At the tops of the stairs was another great sign.
No cameras, no video cameras, be quiet, and fall down the stairs.

At the top of the stairs there was a hall were we had to wait in line to get into the chapel. While we were in line, a tour was past in the other direction, as the tour guide went by I heard him say “Have you ever heard of a man named Martin Luther?” I am sure I laughed out loud – that was the last things I ever expected to hear outside the Sistine Chapel.

We did not have to wait very long and we were to the door.

Now the Sistine Chapel is the best known Chapel in the Vatican (maybe in the world) and everyone is familiar with Michelangelo painting it on scaffolding over a number of years.

Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture, evocative of Solomon's Temple of the Old Testament, and its decoration which has been frescoed throughout by the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Sandro Botticelli. Under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of the chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. He resented the commission, and believed his work only served the Pope's need for grandeur. However, today the ceiling, and especially The Last Judgement, are widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievements in painting.


I was very excited to see the Sistine, but once I walked in the door, I have to admit I was a bit under whelmed. The Chapel was much smaller than I expected and just not as grandiose as I had thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, the artwork is amazing and the ceiling is unbelievable, just not what I had expected. While we were in the chapel it was pretty crowded and there was not a lot of room to move around, so we did not stay very long.

Unbeknownst to me while we were in the Sistine Chapel Shannon snuck her camera out and took some pictures of the ceiling. The thought to take pictures never even crossed my mind…. But here they are.

This one includes part of the last judgment.

Evidently I am the only person who did not think to take pictures; friends from the ship also took one. They have a great camera and the picture really turned out.

Vatican Museums – Ceilings, Walls, and Floors part 2.

This is a wall fresco in Room of the Immaculate Conception This in the ceiling in that room A close up of the seal of Pope Pius IX dated 1855 on the ceiling The Virgin Mary Another wall fresco And another oneA ceiling painted by Michelangelo A close up of one the sections. Another pretty ceiling The Disputation of the Sacrament by Raphael – one of the first paintings he was commissioned to do in the Apostolic Palace, he was commissioned to do several rooms now known as the Raphael Stanze. This is the The Fire in the Borgo is a painting by the workshop of the Italian renaissance artist Raphael. Though it is assumed that Raphael did make the designs for the complex composition, the fresco was most likely painted by his assistant Giulio Romano.
A stained glass window A close up of one of the ceilings. Look at this gorgeous ceiling. This is one of my favorites – a mosaic table.

Next we went to the Sistine Chapel.