St. Peter's Basilica and its curiosities

St. Peter's Basilica is the largest church in the world commissioned by Pope Julius II. We know some curiosities about the basilica that houses the Pope and which is the center of Catholicism. Great artists take us today on a journey through art, faith and spirituality.

St. Peter's Basilica was built in the same place where the old basilica built by Constantine in 319 was previously located. According to the vision of its creator Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the whole area of ​​the square Saint Peter with its long colonnades, about 320 meters long, it should have symbolized the embrace of the church to all humanity.

Near the obelisk there is one tile indicating the center of the colonnade. From that point, thanks to an optical effect due to the gradual increase in the diameter of the columns, they appear disappear showing only a row of pillars. The obelisk before being placed in the center of the square was in the circus of Nero, a place nearby. Subsequently it was strongly desired to Roma by the emperor Caligula who, for fear of it breaking, had it transported from Egypt on a ship loaded with lentils.

On the dome of St. Peter's Basilica there is a sphere, have you ever wondered what it is?

It is an empty sphere inside made of bronze and coated in gold in which about twenty people can enter. Until not much
long ago it was also visitable. The two minor domes that can be seen on the sides of the large one have only an aesthetic function, inside they do not correspond to any chapel.

Inside the basilica there is only one painting, that of Gregorian Madonna. Everything else is done entirely with mosaics very refined because the Vatican hill is very humid and the painting would be ruined. One of the most impressive things placed inside the basilica is undoubtedly the canopy, 29 meters high, built by Bernini and placed on the tomb of St. Peter.