The Vatican - 2002

Picture Album

Random Recollections
  • We remember feeling like ants. It was so huge and vast. There was entirely too much to take in and absorb.
  • The square is elliptical in shape, 1115 ft. along its major axis, and 737 ft. across its minor.
  • The colonnade lining the square consists of four rows of Doric columns sixty feet tall.
  • The 140 statues atop the colonnade are over 3 meters (10') tall and were designed by Bernini and sculpted by his students and assistants. In all, there are 162 figures of Christ, John the Baptist, the apostles, and saints looking down on the square from the colonnade and the basilica.
  • At the center of the square is an 836 foot tall Egyptian obelisk brought to Rome by Caligula in 38 A.D.
  • On each side of the obelisk stand two fountains, each 46 feet tall.
  • Two enormous statues stand on either side of the cathedral entrance, one of Paul holding a sword and scroll, the other of Peter holding a scroll and golden key.
  • The square holds around 300,000 people but has been known to hold more on occasion.
  • All of this magnificence presents itself before you even reach the steps to enter the cathedral.
  • The basilica is often described as the largest church ever built (it covers an area of 163,182 sq. ft. and has a capacity of over 60,000).
  • The entire length of the cathedral, including the vestibule, is 694 ft. The length of the transepts in interior is 451 ft. From the pavement of the church at the Confession to the top of the cross atop the dome, the height of the building is 435 ft. The interior height of the dome is 405 ft.
  • The Baldacchino is a canopy of bronze taken from the Pantheon supported by four 66 foot spiral detailed columns. It stands over the Papal altar.
  • The letters in the gold strip running along the top of the apse and nave are six feet tall.
  • In addition to the principal altar and four altars in the crypts, the basilica contains twenty-nine altars, under most of which bodies of saints, including, it is said, several of the Apostles, repose.
  • Peter, the apostle, is said to be buried in the basilica below the main altar and other popes are buried within as well. Large crypts run under the main floor of the basilica.
  • The building we see today was begun in 1506 and completed 176 years later. Previous churches stood in the same place since the emperor Constantine (according to legend) commissioned a church here after he issued a decree allowing public Christian worship in 313 A.D.
  • We were somewhat disappointed in our pictures inside the cathedral. We thought that we were not supposed to use flash with our camera (although it seemed that occasionally others did). This meant that our pictures were extremely dark. Once, I placed the camera on the base of an interior column and took a picture with the proper exposure. The colors came out much closer to their actual appearance. The paintings were mostly huge murals that were painted directly into the plaster of the walls.
  • Many of the sculptures were famous masterpieces, including Michelangelo's Pietà which he carved at an early age.
  • We were quite in awe due to the feeling of being in a truly historic place where so much world history has transpired.
  • John Paul II was nearly assassinated in the square on May 13, 1981.
  • There were statues and icons everywhere, objects we weren't used to seeing.