St.+Peter's+Basilica

History The first St. Peter's Basilica was begun by Constantine the Great. He built the church to celebrate his acceptance of Christianity. The church was modelled on the basilica, a rectangular building used as a meeting hall by the Romans. Four rows of columns, extending almost the lenght of the church, divided it into a nave with 2 aisles on either side. During the construction of the new basilica 10 different archiquects worked on St. Peter's and changed the design. The first architect was Bramante, he designed a perfectly symetrical church in the form of a Greek cross. Other famous architects that worked on St. Peters included Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta, and Carlos Maderno.Michelangelo changed Bramantes plan for a balanced an restfull dome into a dinamic construction. Maderno also designed the churchs masive facade.

Characteristics Largest Christian church. St. Peters is built in shape of a croos. It can hold morer than 50,000 people. The dome stands over the main altar. Marble and mosaic decorates the walls and the ceiling. Chapels and tombs are in the walls.It is 210 meters long and about 135 meters across.

People and places Its the church made to stand above the tomb believed to hold the body of St. Peter. At the instance of Pope Paul III he succeed as chief architect of the church (Michelangelo). It was comissioned by Pope Julius II. It employed some of the grestest architects of the Renaiccesnce: Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Bernini.

Renovations Originally the facade was smaller and the dome could be seen very well, but when Maderno took over as mandatary of the building he saw that the dome Michelangelo did was seen more than the facade he did, so he did the facade bigger and taller so his job could be seen more.

Floor plan Illustrations

Links info: Enciclopedia leter ¨s¨ iamges from: [] Group members Valerie Lainfiesta and Keny Flores