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.