The Building of St Peter’s Basilica, Rome
This magnificent structure took a very long time to complete!
Few of the world’s great buildings can have had so many fingers in its architectural pie as the Basilica of St Peter in Rome.
From the time it was conceived by Pope Nicholas V in the 15th century, it took nearly 350 years to complete. During that time, a succession of popes and architects left their mark on it.
Although it was Nicholas V who first decided to replace the original basilica built by Constantine the Great in honour of the apostle Peter, the first tangible move did not come until 1505. In that year Pope Julius II thought of building, close to the basilica, a mausoleum to contain a vast monument to himself. He had already asked Michelangelo to execute it, and expense was no object.
Bramante, Raphael, Peruzzi
After changing his mind several times, Julius abandoned the idea of a separate tomb and decided that the old basilica had to be completely rebuilt. He brought in the architect Danato Bramante, who first demolished Constantine’s building and everything in it. Bramante threw out tombs, statues, mosaics, icons and altars, and employed 2500 men for weeks on the work of destruction. But although he was an architect of genius, Bramante was too…
