preview

St. Peter's Basilica Research Paper

Decent Essays

Today St. Peter’s Basilica is seen as the holiest catholic shrine in the world. This history started with Constantine himself authorizing the building of the first Basilica in 324 A.D after Christians were allowed to construct places of worship. The Basilica was intended to protect Gaius’s trophy which in turn is said to be protecting the tomb of St. Peter, the church’s first pope. The shrine was found during a 2nd century evacuation of the Vatican’s necropolis and it did this by having the shrine in the center. The original Basilica was built longitudinally with 4 aisles leading to a Nave with Gaius’s trophy underneath. Outside the Basilica was a staircase that led to a four sided portico, or porch that was also known as paradise. Paradise has a fountain …show more content…

Around the 16th century the Basilica’s condition could no longer be ignored and it was decided by the new Pope, Pope Julius II that the church needed to be completely redone this job was assigned to Donato Bramante in 1505. His design was had the building look like a Greek style cross from above and contained four apses with a very large dome in the center. The work for this project started on April 18th, 1506. The construction for this plan was stopped when Pope Julius II died, by this time a significant amount of work had been done but the question arose, whether the Basilica should have a central theme or a longitudinal theme like it had had before. This question took over 40 years to resolve itself. In this plans were drawn up and evaluated. In the end the Pope, Pope Paul III asked Michelangelo to create a design that incorporated the already standing 4 large pillars that had been constructed. Michelangelo’s idea was to keep the idea that Bramante had originally established but added thickened walls and areas that could be chiseled with intricate

Get Access