St. Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro) is the magnificent square in front of the Christian world’s principal church—St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome—recognized as a true masterpiece of urban planning. Every year, tens of thousands of tourists and pilgrims from around the world gather here to receive the papal blessing. And did you know that the square’s history includes many interesting, frightening, and intriguing chapters?
How Did It All Begin?
The square was created according to the design of one of the founders of Italian Baroque, architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, between 1665 and 1667. However, its history began much earlier when Pope Sixtus V, in 1585, initiated a large-scale overhaul and beautification of the city by laying out new streets and expanding squares, embellishing them with palace facades, and accentuating urban centers with ancient Roman obelisks.
In 1586, he commissioned the renowned and experienced architect Domenico Fontana to adorn the square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica with an obelisk—a mighty vertical dominant element meant to reflect the spiritual grandeur of the Vatican. It is worth noting that the space in front of St. Peter’s Basilica was, at the time, an unattractive wasteland. Thus, the architect was faced with the challenging task of transporting and installing the obelisk.
The work, which lasted more than four months, is still considered a marvel of engineering. The Vatican obelisk stood 25.5 meters tall, and together with its pedestal, reached 41 meters, weighing 350 tons. The construction work involved in installing the obelisk was described in detail by Domenico Fontana in a book dedicated to these events. According to legend, a sphere at the top of the obelisk—which long adorned Emperor Nero’s circus—was supposed to contain the dust of Julius Caesar. However, during the relocation and installation of the obelisk, nothing was found there except dust.
The History of the Square’s Layout
Between 1607 and 1612, under the orders of Pope Paul V, architect Carlo Maderno constructed the colossal façade of the basilica, the central part of which was adorned with eight mighty Corinthian columns. The peculiar arrangement of these columns—with their characteristic convergence toward the center and a barely noticeable forward projection—creates the typical Baroque “wave.”
Simultaneously with the basilica’s construction, there arose a need to design the square in front of it to accommodate as many people as possible, who gathered to receive the papal blessing and participate in religious celebrations. This task was entrusted to Gian Lorenzo Bernini by Pope Alexander VII. In 1665–1667, following his design, a magnificent colonnade was built. A total of 284 mighty Tuscan-order columns, arranged in four rows and forming two semicircular arcs, embrace the oval square, which is 196 meters wide. Initially, the architect had envisioned completely enclosing the colonnade—leaving only two small passages—or constructing a triumphal arch. In this way, the square would have been transformed into an “island of prayer.” However, this plan was not implemented.
In designing the square, incredibly complex and specific architectural techniques were employed to create certain optical effects. Moreover, it is believed that from a bird’s-eye view, the colonnade forms the shape of a symbolic key—a notion that is a free interpretation and was not part of the original design.
From the obelisk, rays of travertine spread out across the pavement, reminding us that in ancient times it served as an astronomical structure. On both sides of the obelisk, two fountains were erected, later named the “Roman” fountains, which became prototypes for many fountains in the squares of Europe’s capitals. Experts say that between the fountains and the obelisk there are two points marked on the pavement with disks, from which the colonnade appears to be built not from four, but from a single row of columns.