Study of Architectural History of St. Peters' Basillica or St. Peters' Church. Mainly for B. Arch student.

1. St. Peters’
Basilica
Aeshvry Rajaura, Hina Kaushar, Aashi
Noor Abbas, Raees Ahmad, Tejendra

2. INTRODUCTION
• The Saint Peter’s Church, also called St. Peter’s Basilica is a
late Renaissance church within Vatican City. It is Europe’s
largest Christian church.
• It is the second church to stand above the crypt (tomb)
believed to hold the body of Saint Peter, the first pope.
• St. Peter’s is built in the shape of a cross.
• There has been a church on this site since the 4th century.
• Construction of the present basilica, over the
old Constantine basilica, began on 18 April 1506 and was
completed on 18 November 1626.
• As a work of architecture, it is regarded as the greatest
building of its age.

3. OLD ST. PETER’S BASILICA (Constantinian Basilica)

4. OLD ST. PETER’S BASILICA (Reconstructed Building Plans)

5. Approximate ground plan: Note that the base of
the northern grandstand of the circus becomes
the foundation of the southern wall of Old St.
Peter’s. Peter’s tomb was just north of the road
that ran along the northern side of the Circus. It
became the centre of the crossing of the naves
and transepts of both the Old and New St.
Peter’s.
Nero’s Circus, Old St. Peter’s,
New
St. Peter’s

6. HISTORY
• The first St. Peter’s Church was begun by Constantine the Great
about 325. He built the church to celebrate his acceptance of
Christianity.
• The church was modeled on the Basilica, a rectangular building used
as a meeting hall by the Romans. Four rows of columns, extending
almost the length of the church, divided it into a nave with two
aisles on either side.
• In 1452, Pope Nicholas V began to restore and expand the church.
The restoration continued until 1506, when Pope Julius II decided to
rebuild the church completely.
• During its construction, 10 different architects worked on St. Peter’s
and changed its design.
• The first architect was Donato Bramante. He designed a domed,
perfectly symmetrical church in the form of a Greek cross(a cross
with four arms of equal length).

7. ARCHITECTS
1. Donato Bramante: Bramante proposed a Greek Cross plan, the centre of which
would be surmounted by a dome slightly larger than that of the Pantheon.
2. Giuliano Da Sangallo: He strengthened and extended the peristyle of Bramante
into a series of arched and ordered openings around the base. In his hands, the
rather delicate form of the lantern, based closely on that in Florence, became a
massive structure, surrounded by a projecting base, a peristyle and surmounted by a
spire of conic form, but the plan was simply too eclectic to be considered.
3. Raffaello Sanzio: The main change in Raphael's plan is the nave of five bays,
with a row of complex apsidal chapels off the aisles on either side.
4. Baldassare Peruzzi: Maintained changes that Raphael had proposed to the
internal arrangement of the three main apses, but otherwise reverted to the Greek
Cross plan and other features of Bramante.
5. Antonio Da Sangallo The Younger: Main practical contribution was to
strengthen Bramante's piers which had begun to crack.

8. ARCHITECTS6. Michelangelo: He reverted to Bramante’s original design, the Greek Cross and converted its
snowflake complexity into massive, cohesive unity.
7. Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola: Appointed by Pope Pius V as a watchdog to make sure that
Michelangelo's plans were carried out exactly after his death.
8. Giacomo Della Porta: He subsequently altered Michelangelo’s design by adding of lion's
masks over the swags on the drum in honor of Pope Sixtus and adding a circlet of finials around
the spire at the top of the lantern, as proposed by Sangallo. Also proposed to raise the outer
dome higher above the inner one.
9. Carlo Maderno: He made the most significant contribution since Michelangelo, because he
pulled down the remaining parts of Old St. Peter's and proceeded to transform Michelangelo's
centralized Greek-cross design into a Latin cross with a long nave.
10. Gian Lorenzo Bernini: He was regarded as the greatest architect and sculptor of
the Baroque period. Bernini's works at St. Peter's include the baldacchino, the Chapel of the
Sacrament, the plan for the niches and loggias in the piers of the dome and the chair of St. Peter.

9. PLANNING
BRAMANTE’S PLAN
Donato Bramante won Pope Julius II Della Revere's design
contest for the new church. Bramante proposed a Greek
Cross plan, the center of which would be surmounted by a
dome slightly larger than that of the Pantheon.
RAPHAEL’S PLAN
Raphael’s plan was for a basilica in the form of a
Roman Cross with a short pronaos and a façade.

10. PLANNING
MICHELANGELO’S PLAN
Michelangelo changed Bramante’s plan for a balanced and
restful dome into a dynamic construction. He put a drum(ring) at
the base of the dome that appears to be squeezing the dome
and forcing its sides to spring upwards. He shortened Raphael’s
nave, but Carlo Maderno added back the nave and added the
famous façade.
CARLO MADERNO’S PLAN
He made the most significant contribution
since Michelangelo, because he pulled down the
remaining parts of Old St. Peter's and proceeded to
transform Michelangelo's centralized Greek-cross
design into a Latin cross with a long nave.

11. • This extension of the basilica was undoubtedly necessary from
the point of view of practical requirements, but it destroyed
Michelangelo's great conception and substituted something less
impressive, since the great dome can no longer be appreciated
from every point of view.
• As a result of these alterations, Maderno had to design a facade
which would not detract too much from the dome and, at the
same time, would be worthy of its setting and also contain a
central feature, the Benediction Loggia, to provide a frame for the
figure of the pope when he appeared in public.
• These conflicting requirements were met as far as possible by
Maderno's adaptation of a typical Roman palace facade, with
decorative motives taken from Michelangelo's works.
•The plan to provide bell towers at the ends to enframe the dome
in distant views had to be abandoned because the foundations
gave trouble. The work, including the decoration, was completed
and consecrated on Nov. 18, 1626.
MADERNO’S PLAN
PLANNING

12. •The façade designed by Maderno, is 114.69 meters (376.3 ft)
wide and 45.55 meters (149.4 ft) high.
•It is built of travertine stone, with a giant order of Corinthian
columns and a central pediment rising in front of a
tall attic surmounted by thirteen statues: Christ flanked by
eleven of the Apostles (except Peter, whose statue is left of the
stairs) and John the Baptist.
MADERNO’S FAÇADE.
PLANNING

13. THE EXTERIOR
• The church was given an impressive setting by Gian Lorenzo
Bernini, one of its architects.
• An avenue almost 1.5 kilometers long leads from the Tiber
River to the Piazza Di San Pietro (Square Of St. Peter), a large
open space in front of the church.
• A red granite obelisk (shaft) stands 26 meters high in the
piazza’s center. It was brought to Rome from Egypt about
A.D. 37, and was moved to the piazza in 1586.
• The Piazza which was completed in 1667, contains two
fountains and two colonnades (rows of columns) arranged in
semicircles on opposite sides of the Piazza.

14. • The interior of the church is decorated in Baroque style.
• Bernini, who was also a sculptor, created many of its famous
features in the 1650s.
• He built the elaborate bronze baldacchino (canopy) over the
main alter, which stands beneath the dome. It closes the
extremely long sweep of the nave and is 95 Ft. high.
• As may be seen in the accompanying plan, the four principal
divisions of the basilica extend from the dome and are
connected with each other by passages behind the dome piers.
• To the right and the left of the nave lie the smaller and
lower aisles, the right of which is bordered by four
lateral chapels, the left by three chapels and the passage to the
roof.
THE INTERIORS

15. • The general decoration consists of colored marble
incrustations, stucco figures, rich gilding, mosaic
decoration, and marble figures on the pilasters,
ceiling, and walls.
• The paneling of the pavement in geometric figures is of
colored marble after the designs of Giacomo della
Porta and Bernini.
• Beneath it is the Confession of St. Peter, where the
body of the Prince of Apostles reposes – the tomb of
St. Peter’s.
• No chairs or pews obstruct the view; the eye roves
freely over the glittering surface of the marble
pavement, where there is room for thousands of
people.
THE INTERIORS

16. Major axis of the piazza - 1115.4 feet.
• Minor axis of the piazza - 787.3 feet.
• Vestibule of the basilica - 232.9 feet wide, 44.2 deep, and 91.8 high.
• Height and width of the nave - 151.5 feet and 90.2 feet respectively.
• Entire length of the basilica including the vestibule - 693.8 feet.
• From the pavement of the church (measured from the Confession) to
the oculus of the lantern resting upon the dome the height - 404.8 feet;
• To the summit of the cross surmounting the lantern - 434.7 feet.
• The measurements of the interior diameter of the dome vary
somewhat, being generally computed at 137.7 feet, thus exceeding
the dome of the Pantheon by a span of 4.9 feet.
•The surface area of St. Peter's is 163,182.2 sq. feet.
DIMENSIONS

17. Internal Piers (each ~60 square feet)
Lantern
Internal Spiral Stairwells
(inside piers)

18. PIAZZA
The piazza is the open space which lies before the basilica was redesign by
the Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656-1667, under the direction of Pope
Alexander VII, is an appropriate forecourt, designed “so that the greatest
number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either in the
middle of façade of the church or from the window of the Vatican Palace.
"Four rows of simple and majestic Doric columns—300 all togethercarved
from Roman travertine form an oval 650 feet across the long axis marked
by three monuments: laterally by fountains propelling tall jets of water
and in the center by an Egyptian obelisk that had served as a turning post
in the chariot races at the ancient Circus of Nero. As they enter the piazza,
the faithful are embraced by "the motherly arms of the church," Bernini's
own description of his Colonnade. The Colonnade becomes
simultaneously a dramatic frame for the church, a nurturing enclosure for
the crowds of faithful, and a stage for the processions and other sacred
spectacles on which, at this particular period, the Catholic Church so
strongly depended for its appeal."

19. Obelisk
Columns
Plan

20. •Michelangelo designed a “true,” Roman, hemispherical
dome (see book)
•Final dome is 20 ft. taller than a hemisphere; the
exterior dome is not hemispherical and thus not
concentric with the inner shell
•Lantern, which is octagonal, suggests that the dome
was to have 8 ribs. In actuality, there are 16 ribs.
Deviations in Dome
Design…

21. One of the two minor domes, designed by Vignola.
Vignola served as second in command after
Michelangelo’s death and chief architect from 1565 to
1573.
(Smaller domes are in style of Bramante’s original
cupola; thin walled and single layered).
Minor Domes

22. THANKING YOU
AESHVRY RAJAURA, HINA KAUSAR, AASHI JAIN,
NOOR ABBAS, RAEES AHMAD, TEJENDRA PAL