St. Peter's Square

For other uses, see St. Peter's Square (disambiguation).

St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square (Italian: Piazza San Pietro [ˈpjattsa sam ˈpjɛːtro], Latin: Forum Sancti Petri) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood or rione of Borgo. Both the square and the basilica are named after Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus considered by Catholics to be the first Pope.

At the centre of the square is an ancient Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1586. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later, including the massive Doric colonnades, four columns deep, which embrace visitors in "the maternal arms of Mother Church". A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613.

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St. Peter's Square within Vatican City

See also

• Index of Vatican City-related articles

Further reading

• Hibbert, Christopher, 1985, Rome: The biography of a city, London, Penguin.
• Norwich, John Julius, ed. 1975 Great Architecture of the World ISBN 0-394-49887-9
• Touring Club Italiano, Roma e Dintorni

External links

External videos
Bernini's St. Peter's Square, Smarthistory

• stpetersbasilica.info Pages for all 140 Colonnade Saints
• Great Buildings On-line: Piazza of St. Peter's
• Roberto Piperno, "Piazza di S. Pietro": engravings by Vasi
• Mary Ann Sullivan, "St Peter's Piazza, Vatican City"
• Obeliscus Vaticanus LacusCurtius.com, The Vatican Obelisk, retrieved September 4, 2006
• The legend of the cry of Bresca Legendary Rome
• Rome, Nova Online, Mysteries of the Nile, A World of Obelisks: Rome pbs.org, retrieved September 4, 2006
• St. Peter's Square, Bernini's Fountain