St. Peters Wallpapers

St. Peter's Square, Vatican City - Architecture; photo wallpapers: Saint Peter's Square, [br]or Saint Peter's Piazza (Italian: Piazza San Pietro), is located [br]directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal [br]enclave within Rome (the Piazza borders to the East the rione of [br]Borgo). The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by [br]Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope [br]Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the [br]greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either [br]from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the [br]Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). Bernini had been working on the [br]interior of St. Peter's for decades; now he gave order to the space [br]with his renowned colonnades, using the Tuscan form of Doric, the [br]simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the [br]palace-like façade by Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an [br]unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and evoke emotions of [br]awe. The site's possibilities were under many constraints from existing [br]structures (illustration, right). The massed accretions of the Vatican [br]Palace crowded the space to the right of the basilica's façade; the [br]structures needed to be masked without obscuring the papal apartments. [br]The obelisk marked a center, and a granite fountain by Carlo Maderno [br]stood to one side: Bernini made the fountain appear to be one of the [br]foci of the ellipse embraced by his colonnades and eventually matched [br]it on the other side, in 1675, just five years before his death. The [br]trapezoidal shape of the piazza, which creates a heightened perspective [br]for a visitor leaving the basilica and has been praised as a [br]masterstroke of Baroque theater (illustration, below right), is largely [br]a product of site constraints. The colossal Tuscan colonnades, four [br]columns deep, frame the trapezoidal entrance to the basilica and the [br]massive elliptical area which precedes it. The ellipses long axis, [br]parallel to the basilicas facade, creates a pause in the sequence of [br]forward movements that is characteristic of a Baroque monumental [br]approach. The colonnades define the piazza. The elliptical center of [br]the piazza, which contrasts with the trapezoidal entrance, encloses the [br]visitor with the maternal arms of Mother Church in Bernini's [br]expression. On the south side, the colonnades define and formalize the [br]space, with the Barberini Gardens still rising to a skyline of umbrella [br]pines. On the north side, the colonnade masks an assortment of Vatican [br]structures; the upper stories of the Vatican Palace rise above. At the [br]center of the ellipse stands an Egyptian obelisk of red granite, 25.5 [br]meters tall, supported on bronze lions and surmounted by the Chigi arms [br]in bronze, in all 41 meters to the cross on its top. The obelisk, of [br]the 13th century BC, was moved to Rome in AD 37 by the Emperor Caligula [br]to stand in the central spina of the Circus Gai et Neronis, which lay [br]to the left of the present basilica. It was moved to its current site [br]in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana under the direction [br]of Pope Sixtus V; the engineering feat of re-erecting its vast weight [br]was memorialized in a suite of engravings (illustrated right). The [br]Vatican Obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since [br]ancient Roman times. During the Middle Ages, the gilt ball on top of [br]the obelisk was believed to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar. Fontana [br]later removed the ancient metal ball, now in a Rome museum, that stood [br]atop the obelisk and found only dust. Though Bernini had no influence [br]in the erection of the obelisk, he did use it as the centerpiece of his [br]magnificent piazza.  The paving is varied by radiating lines in [br]travertine, to relieve what might otherwise be a sea of cobblestones. [br]In 1817 circular stones were set to mark the tip of the obelisk's [br]shadow at noon as the sun entered each of the signs of the zodiac, [br]making the obelisk a gigantic sundial's gnomon. St. Peter's Square [br]today can be reached from the Ponte Sant Angelo along the grand [br]approach of the Via della Conciliazione (in honor of the Lateran Treaty [br]of 1929). The spina which once occupied this grand avenue leading to [br]the square was demolished ceremonially by Benito Mussolini himself on [br]October 23, 1936 and was completely demolished by October 8, 1937. St. [br]Peter's Basilica was now freely visible from the Castel Sant Angelo. [br]The effect of its demolition, however, was to destroy the [br]characteristic Baroque "surprise". The Via della Conciliazione was [br]completed in time for the Great Jubilee of 1950.

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St. Peters Wallpapers @ Mega Wallpapers (08 Edition)
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