Unfortunately the weather was not cooperative; beautiful cloud-filled skies during the day and complete overcast at night (!) meant that my primary goal was not met. Instead I did a lot of panorama and HDR photography during the day and experimented with flash and “painting with light” techniques at night.

Death Valley Dante's View - Badwater Basin - 25 minute Exposure

This is the overlook from Dante’s View of the Badwater Basin area – it’s looking due west. The moon had risen just a few minutes prior to opening the shutter. The image is 1408 seconds, roughly 25 minutes. The cloud cover has already moved in, blocking the stars and the sky to the west. But it is worth noting that even under these conditions there is sufficient light to expose the floor of the salt pan at Badwater and to illuminate the sky. Star trails are faint but visible in larger versions of this image, too. So, this is a failed image but a success at proof-of-concept.

Death Valley Mesquite Dunes - Mesquite Tree and Clouds

This is a 3-image +/- 1 f-stop HDR image of a mesquite tree on a sand dune near Stovepipe Wells. I deliberately went for a more surreal look to the HDRs I took here.

Rhyolite, Nevada - Cook Bank Building

The Cook Bank Building at the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada. 3 image +/- 1 f-stop HDR image.

Death Valley - Badwater Basin Panorama

A 10 image panorama of Death Valley’s Badwater Basin area.

Death Valley - Mining Equipment Warm Springs

Some Depression-era mining equipment at Warm Springs Camp. Accessible by Jeep, Warm Springs is a former mining camp nestled in a small valley in the middle of the Funeral Mountains on the western side of Death Valley. The spring there is constantly flowing and was used as a source to fill a large swimming pool (visible in the Google Maps link) at the camp.

I have an album of photos from this Death Valley trip in my photo gallery immediately next to the U2 Joshua Tree photo.

We did both of those things.

To get to West Berlin we took a train from West Germany. We crossed into East Germany where we were greeted by East German soldiers with machine guns and German Shepherds. While they thoroughly inspected the train inside and out the East German passport control officer worked his way down the train aisle. When he arrived at our cabin he threw the door aside and very sternly demanded our passports. He examined them and us very closely and then stamped them, allowing us therefore to continue. It was almost comical in its presentation. I think we were supposed to be intimidated but the appearance and behavior of the passport control officer was quite comical and stereotypical.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later we were underway again. We pulled into Zoo Station, at the time the main train station for West Berlin. We got off and made a bee line for Wilhemstrasse, which our trusty Lonely Planet guide assured was the place to see the Wall. Looking at Google maps of Berlin now we must have walked several kilometers at least. Wilhelmstrasse was a good place to go because one could see the Cold War and the then last 50 years of European and geo-political history in one location. Wilhelmstrasse at the intersection of Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse was the location of the Prinz Albrecht Hotel, which was used by the Nazis as Nazi SS headquarters before and during WWII. It was bombed to rubble at the end of the war and was then (and now) an open field.

When we arrived into the area the Wall was unmistakeable. Covered in graffiti it loomed easily 12 feet (4 m) high. There were a few wooden observation platforms near it; I climbed up and took a few photos (July 1988 Berlin Wall Wilhelmstrasse 1, July 1988 Berlin Wall Wilhelmstrasse 2) into the East. I could see men moving around in the observation tower and assumed they were looking at me. I could see the No Man’s Land area with the trip wires and maybe even land mines.

The Berlin Wall at Wilhelmstrasse

We walked back and went to Potsdamer Platz, which was nearby and prior to the war had been the center of Berlin’s social and cultural life. It too now was just an empty field. I took a few more photos and then we walked back to Zoo Station, walked down the Kurfürstendamm (aka the Ku-damm and the then center of West Berlin’s retail activity) and then caught our train back to West Germany.

It was a profound experience for me. I was able to look Communism and Totalitarianism in its face and see it for the horror that it is. That experience has stayed with me ever since and at times fueled my opinions of things that have happened in this country, as well. When the Wall came down in 1989 and Communism with it I was ecstatic for East and West Germany and for all of us.

In 2006 I went back to the now-united Germany and to Berlin (I had gone to Germany in 1996 as well but was unable to get to Berlin on that trip). The Wall had been down for many years now and it was quickly fading into history. As part of a bus tour we drove down Niederkichnerstrasse, the street that was immediately behind the Wall at the Wilhelmstrasse site. Strangely enough this was one of the only sections of Wall left in the city. We got off the bus at the next stop and I went back to Wilhelmstrasse with prints of the photos I took in 1988. There was a visitors center there now, the young woman behind the counter and I had a nice discussion of my photos and the possible location of the second set (I have forgotten where I took them but it was somewhere along the walk from Wilhelmstrasse to Potsdamer Platz). I took some photos from the same general location (the wooden observation platforms were gone now) (July 2006 Wilhelmstrasse Berlin 1, July 2006 Wilhelmstrasse Berlin 2, Niederkichnerstrasse). I showed a guy selling water and snacks my 1988 photos and told him in German that I had been here then and took them. He looked at them and gave a low whistle.

We later went to Potsdamer Platz, which is once again a center of social, cultural and retail life in Berlin. All through the city there is a marker in the pavement that shows the path of the Berlin Wall; the marker runs right through the middle of Potsdamer Platz.

Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany

The Berlin Wall Path Marker at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany

I have always felt enormously grateful for that day in West Berlin in the summer of 1988. It was truly a life-changing day for me and an experience that is very difficult to get nowadays. Communism and totalitarianism are either veneered with Favored Nation trade status or extremely remote. I suppose the only equivalent place with as obvious a divide is the DMZ between North and South Korea. Not being able to post to Facebook from my hotel room in Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China does not have quite the same impact as seeing a 12 foot high graffiti-covered testimony to the failure of an entire political and governmental philosophy and a symbol of oppression of basic human rights and murderous violence.

Here is a map of the Berlin Wall’s route overlayed on a map of Berlin. Scroll down to Group 127 and then zoom in to see the location of my Berlin Wall photos.

The Trevi Fountain

This spring, located approximately at the 8th milestone on the Via Collatina from the city’s 0 milestone in the Roman Forum became the source for the aqueduct, which was used for a major bath complex. Both the aqueduct and the bath was financed by Marcus Agrippa in 19 BCE. The source was only 8 miles (15 km) away but the run length of the aqueduct was over 20 km, but with an overall drop of only 4 meters end to end.

With the Goth invasion of 537/538 AD the aqueduct was cut and Late Antiquity Rome’s citizens lost their last fresh water supply for 1 000 years. Pope Nicholas V repaired the aqueduct in 1453 and built a small simple basin at it’s terminus.

Commission and Construction

Pope Clement XII held a competition in 1730 for a fountain design to cover the entire back wall of the Palazzo Poli. The competition was won by a Roman named Nicola Salvi and work commenced in 1732. It is designed in the Baroque style. The very last touches were applied to the fountain 30 years later with the installation of the statue of Oceanus (the god of all water) in the central niche.

Dimensions

The fountain is 20 meters (65 feet) wide and 26 meters (85 feet) high at it’s highest point. It is the largest Baroque fountain in Rome.

Iconography

The Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain

Tossing the Coins

Various stories about tossing the coins in the fountain exist. The most common one is that one tosses a coin to ensure another visit to Rome, while extensions of that say 2 coins means one will fall in love and 3 coins means one will marry in Rome. Approximately 3 000 Euros are tossed into the fountain every day; the city of Rome collects the coins and gives them to various charities.

I have an album of photos from Rome and other places in Italy in my photo gallery.

I stopped at the very southern corner of Geology Tour Rd and shot this panorama looking north of Pleasant Valley.

Joshua Tree National Park Pleasant Valley Panorama - Click for Larger Image

I found a good turn-off next to the road and set up. The moon rose above the rock formations and I took this image.

Joshua Tree National Park Long Exposure - Click for Larger Image

The full moon is behind a cloud. This was an ominous beginning; the clouds were coming in from the coast in front of the rain storm that hit us the next day. The clouds cut down the light available and made exposure estimation that much harder.

This was a multiple-minute exposure of a granite rock outcropping just off the road.

Joshua Tree National Park Rocks and Full Moon - Click for Larger Image

Eventually the clouds became so heavy I had to abandon the activity; the light was less than half what it was at the beginning of the evening.

Lessons learned:

1. Bring extra batteries. I went through a double battery pack in 3 hours of shooting. The long exposures really drain the batteries.
2. Next time I’ll get a hotel room out there and work all night instead of feeling like I had to get done by a certain time so I could safely drive home.
3. Give more time for location scouting.
4. Improve my autofocus management technique.

If you are planning a visit to Italy soon I have written 2 walking tour guide books to Rome that you can purchase here or at Amazon or Barnes and Noble plus I have a great deal of travel information about Italy and Rome here at my Travels webpages.

I have an album of photos from Rome and other places in Italy in my photo gallery.

The Day

March 15, 44 BC was a bad day for Julius Caesar. He was murdered by a group of 40 Roman Senators (including a Senator he considered an ally, Marcus Brutus to whom as Shakespear famously wrote he said “Et tu, Brute?” (You, too, Brutus?) as Brutus approached him to stab him) as he was walking to the Roman Senate building in the Roman Forum. The place he was murdered was a meeting room in the back of a structure called Pompey’s Theater. He was later cremated in the Roman Forum after a eulogy given by his friend Marc Antony, who said “I come not to bury Caesar, but to praise him.”

He was murdered because he had recently been declared “Permanent Dictator,” thus threatening the existence of the Roman Republic. This was in response to his military victories in Gaul after which he returned to Rome and crossed the Rubicon River with his personal army – an illegal act – and declared “The die is cast” (or maybe more likely “Let the dice fly”) as he did it.

Important Sites in Rome

The Rubicon

The Rubicon’s original location is now lost (a river in the Emilia Romagna region, 300+ km north of Rome was determined to be the Rubicon in 1991. This river as with many in the Po Valley, has undergone a great deal of civil engineering over the centuries and so it’s original natural flow has been erased), but the other places – the Roman Senate building, the site where he was cremated, the site where his eulogy was given, Pompey’s Theater and the meeting room where he was assassinated all still exist and can be visited in various ways.

Pompey’s Theater

The Largo di Torre Argentina Sacred Area - Click for Larger Image

Pompey’s Theater was a permanent stone theater in Rome. Pompey was a powerful Senator who got around the rules forbidding permanent theater structures by putting a small temple on the top and a few meeting rooms in the back and calling it a temple and convention center. It exists today south of Piazza Navona as a series of apartment buildings built upon the theater superstructure hundreds and hundreds of years ago; you can follow the semi-circular curve of the building. You can also have a meal in a restaurant called Ostaria Costanza thereby sitting inside the support structure with the original brickwork and archways. The meeting room where Julius Caesar met his demise is at the eastern end of the complex; you can see it if you visit the Largo di Torre Argentina area, which is an excavated temple complex. The room remnants can be seen by standing in the right location on the eastern side and looking west. The area is a cat sanctuary and the room is now, believe it or not, a lavatory. In the photo above, the room in which Caesar was murdered is past the archways visible in the near background below street level. What survives of Pompey’s Theater is beyond and behind those large-ish buildings in the background.

The Roman Forum

The Roman Forum - Click for Larger Image

The Roman Forum includes a rebuilt-restored Senate building and a small ruined temple room with altar that is supposed to be the site of his cremation. The spot where the eulogy was given is called the Rostra and was used for giving important speeches to the Senate building and to people gathered in the Forum’s open square. His cremation site can be seen in the photo above but just barely; locate the well-preserved Temple of Antoninus and Faustina on the far left of the photo. Follow the front stairs down to the dark gray “lump.” That lump is the ruins of the memorial and cremation platform. The Rostra is not visible but it is beyond the lower left part of the frame.

Consequences

The result of Julius Caesar’s assassination was a civil war between Marc Antony and Octavian, Caesar’s nephew that lasted years. It resulted in the defeat of Marc Antony’s army and the death of Cleopatra and Marc Antony via snake bite. Octavian became Augustus and was the first emperor of the Roman Empire. He was also the guy who commanded the Biblical Slaughter of the Innocents.

The Roman Calendar – Calends, Nones and Ides

Wikipedia has a great explanation of the numerous calendars Romans used during the course of their time on Earth, but basically the Romans described only particular points during the month with a title. The calends was the beginning, the nones was somewhere around the 5 to 7th days and the ides was usually the 13th but in March and a few other months it was the 15th. These points are generally thought to be based on moon phases (Calends = new moon, Nones = half moon, Ides = full moon). Other days were represented by “days after calends” or days before nones.” It seems that the Romans’ calendar is, like their numbering system, a lot more complicated than it needs to be.

So, from this one incident more than 2 000 years ago we get several common sayings (“Et tu, Brutus!” for betrayal, “Crossing the Rubicon” for an act that can’t be taken back) and even once in a while someone will substitute a well regarded individual’s name for Caesar in the famous eulogy and we can still visit the places at which these events occurred.

If you are planning a visit to Italy soon I have written 2 walking tour guide books to Rome that you can purchase here or at Amazon or Barnes and Noble plus I have a great deal of travel information about Italy and Rome here at my Travels webpages.

I have an album of photos from Rome and other places in Italy in my photo gallery.

Trastevere is a district of Rome to the west, officially Rione XIII. “Trastevere” (trahs TAY veh ray) means “Across the Tevere.” “Tevere” is the Italian name for the Tiber, the large river that flows through Rome. It is an ancient and medieval district full of narrow lanes and twisting alleyways. It is also home to two interesting very early Christian churches, Santa Cecilia and Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Santa Cecilia

The church is dedicated to St Cecilia, a 2nd century Roman martyr and patron of musicians. The Italian pronunciation is “chay CHEE lee ah.”

The first church on the site was built in the either 3rd or the 5th century, during excavation work its baptistery was discovered beneath the present Chapel of Relics.

The church was rebuilt in the early 9th century and St Cecilia’s remains were brought from the catacombs of St Calixtus to the church. It was rebuilt-remodeled again in the 18th century.

The Courtyard of Rome, Italy's Santa Cecilia

The front façade was designed in 1725; you walk through the monumental entry and into a courtyard. In front of the church building proper is a garden courtyard with an ancient water vessel adapted as a fountain. The campanile is from the 12th or 13th century.

The 24 Corinthian columns are from the first church.

Stefano Maderno’s beautiful sculpture of Cecilia is in front of the sanctuary. The discovery of her body by Pope Paschal in a catacomb in the 9th century is depicted in a 12th or 13th century fresco at the end of the aisle. Her body was brought to the church and re-interred after the discovery. Her tomb was reopened in 1599 and her body was apparently found intact and incorrupt. Maderno made a sculpture of her; his inscription can still be seen on the floor, testifying that she was depicted just as he saw her.

The interior of Rome, Italy's Santa Cecilia

The Gothic canopy was made, and signed, by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1292. It is supported by four columns of black and white marble and has Cosmatesque decoration.

The Byzantine style apse mosaic dates from 820 and depicts Christ in Roman clothes being crowned by the Hand of God. He is wearing lati clavi, which was a sign of high rank in Roman society. He is flanked by from left to right; St Paul, St Cecilia, Pope Paschal I, St Peter, St Valerian and St Agatha. Below them on the band 12 lambs surrounding the Lamb of God are seen leaving Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The church’s upper gallery was originally a women’s gallery and is now the nun’s choir

Excavation

Santa Cecilia is built upon an Imperial Era house. You can see the excavations; the ticket office is at the rear of the church on the left side as you enter.

Roman houses from the 2nd and 3rd century have been excavated. One of them is supposedly St Cecilia’s. Evidence of Republican period buildings have also been found. Back then this area was a commercial district; the brick basins uncovered indicates that it was owned by a craftsman; possibly a tanner.

Santa Maria in Trastevere

Some sources say this is the first church where Mass was celebrated openly. Legend surrounds this church’s founding; some information puts its construction at 221, although mid 4^th century is more likely. It was rebuilt in the mid 12^th century and again in the mid 19^th century. Santa Maria in Trastevere contains an odd mixture of Ancient Roman artifacts and construction and early, medieval and relatively new Christian art and architecture.

The front of Rome Italy's Santa Maria in Trastevere Church

The façade was rebuilt in 1702; the four Baroque statues above the portal depict Sts Calixtus, Cornelius, Julius and Calepodius. The mosaics are 12th century. They depict the parable of the wise and the unwise maidens. The Blessed Virgin is in the center. The right side maidens are crownless and have allowed their lamps to extinguish.

The door has recycled Imperial Rome stone cornices and the narthex contains a collection of pagan and early Christian inscriptions (3rd century) on the wall and fragments of 9th century sculpture and medieval paintings. The sarcophagi are from the 3rd and 4th centuries.

The campanile is 12th century.

The Mosaic and Triumphal Arch in Rome Italy's Santa Maria in Trastevere

The spectacular main apse mosaic is also from the 13th century remodel project and is attributed to Pietro Cavallini. Christ and St Mary are enthroned and flanked by saints and popes. The mosaic’s left side shows Pope Innocent II holding a model of the church, St Lawrence and Pope St Callixtus. On the right side are Peter and Pope St Cornelius, Pope St Julius and St Calepodius.

The panels between the windows are also mosaics and are late 12th century. They show scenes from the life of the Blessed Virgin. From the left they are: The Birth of Our Lady, The Annunciation, Nativity, Epiphany, Presentation in the Temple and The Falling Asleep of Mary. The last one shows the soul of Mary in the arms of Our Lord.

The Apse Mosaic of Rome, Italy's Santa Maria in Trastevere Church

The triumphal arch’s frescoes are 19th century, the episcopal throne in the apse is ancient.

Weird Stuff

And now for some of the oddness that is Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Inside the church in various places are the Latin words “Fons Olei (oil spring).” Legend has it that a crude oil spring bubbled up here during Augustus’ rule. The local Jewish community interpreted it as a sign that God’s grace would soon flow into the world. Later, because of this interpretation, this location became a meeting spot for the first Roman converts to Christianity.

Another oddness; at the steps at the end of the right aisle you can see some black marble weights. These are ancient standard weights, which the Romans first kept in the temples and later in the churches.

The Stained Glass Wndows of Rome Italy's Santa Maria in Trastevere

If you are planning a visit to Italy soon I have written 2 walking tour guide books to Rome that you can purchase here or at Amazon or Barnes and Noble plus I have a great deal of travel information about Italy and Rome here at my Travels webpages.

I have an album of photos from Rome and other places in Italy in my photo gallery.

The Front of Santa Maria Maggiore - Three Image Panorama

Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major) is one of 4 papal basilicas in Rome along with San Giovanni in Laterano (St John in the Lateran), San Paolo Fuori le Mura (St Paul Outside the Wall) and San Pietro in Vaticano (St Peter in the Vatican). It is one of the 4 churches the Pope holds Mass in and each church’s plot of land is a little piece of the Vatican. Built in 8 years from 432 to 440, Santa Maria Maggiore sits on the summit of the Esquiline Hill, on a place that legend says was the location of an August snowstorm in 358. A childless couple was visited by the Virgin during their sleep and were told to build a church on the spot where snow fell the next morning. This led to the church first being called Santa Maria della Neve (St Mary of the Snow). Every year in August the legend is re-enacted by Rome Catholics who drop white flower petals from the dome during the feast day festival. Over the centuries the church was expanded and remodeled but its interior remains true to its original construction; its layout looks very much like a 1st century Roman basilica, which for them was not a church but in fact a shopping mall/civic center building. It has a long tall nave, two aisles (one on either side) and a semi-hemispherical dome at the far end. Its overall length is 92 m, its overall width is 80 m and the nave is 30 m wide. It’s 75 m high. The ceiling is said to be gilded with gold brought back from the New World. The columns inside are recycled from an older Roman temple.

Mosaics and Art

Santa Maria Maggiore Apse Mosaic Created 1295 CE. Handheld shot at ISO 800.

The mosiacs in this church are nothing less than spectacular and should be the main focus of a visit. The dominant work of art in Santa Maria Maggiore is doubtlessly the apse mosaic. Created in 1295, it features Jesus and Mary surrounded by representations of the Tree of Life, the Apostles and other liturgical symbols. A truly stunning work, it set the standard for representations of Mary in Catholic art for centuries.

Santa Maria Maggiore Triumphal Arch Mosaic and Baldochino. Handheld shot at ISO 800

The Triumphal Arch is also similarly beautiful. It illustrates scenes from Christ’s life and its theme is The Infant Savior. Because these works are older than the Council of Nicea, the Triumphal Arch in this church includes a scene that didn’t make the cut in the official New Testament (Christ as a baby is brought to a temple but His holiness causes the temple statues to crack and fall from their pedestals). Thus Santa Maria Maggiore’s Triumphal Arch mosaic is the only example of Christian art that contains a scene of Christ’s life not in the Bible.

Standing in the back of the nave you can see directly above the columns and architraves and underneath each window mosaics of Old Testament history. Research has dated them to circa 432-440, in the pontificate of Pope Sixtus III. Since the natural light in the church is very low, the best way to see them is to be in the church just prior to a service. They are then lit with artificial light and they absolutely glow! Some of them were heavily restored with paint during the Middle Ages, and some were reconstructed in 1593 and later.

Of the original 42 panels, 27 have survived to today. Fifteen have been lost through the ages; some of those when the Pauline and Sistine Chapels were built (you can see the archways at the end of the nave built for their entrances).

Additions

The Sforza Chapel is interesting because it was designed by Michaelangelo in 1564 (and completed in 1573 by Giacomo della Porta). So many of his works are now “off limits” to the general public that it is nice to be able to not only walk up to one of his creations but actually walk into it. The original entrance to this chapel was a large arch, but it was demolished in the mid-1700’s. This church also has a Sistine Chapel, but this Sistine Chapel is nothing like the famous one in the Vatican. Any chapel built by a Pope named Sixtus (there were 5 of them) is named “Sistine.” Laid out in a Greek Cross plan with a magnificent dome capping it, the Sistine Chapel known officially as Blessed Sacrament Chapel is a truly outstanding creation. It was designed by Domenico Fontana and work began on it in 1585 and is the burial place for Pope Sixtus V (ah ha!).

I have an album of photos from Rome and other places in Italy in my photo gallery.

The images are in my Southern California image album page 6.

St Peter in the Vatican Panorama

The history of Rome is fascinating and is occasionally the subject of posts here such as the history of the Colosseum and the history of the Pantheon. I have been to Rome many times and consider it my second home. The area we call the Vatican was in ancient Roman times a suburban area of Rome and included a Circus (horse chariot racing track). The circus was called by various names including Circus Vaticanus, the Circus of Nero and the Circus of Caligula and is the site of St Peter’s upside down crucifixion. The church you see today is the second such structure on this spot and is sometimes called “New St Peter’s.” It has almost nothing in common with Old St Peter’s, the first church built here (by Constantine’s decree) in 321 CE.

The approach to St Peter's Square

The Ancient Topography and Architecture of the Vatican Area

The original structure here, the circus, is now buried well below the current level of Piazza San Pietro – St Peter’s Square – and is the bottom most of three layers. The topmost layer is New St Peter’s, next is Old St Peter’s and the lowest is the aforementioned Circus Vaticanus. The spina (the long narrow center divider) of the Circus is used to line up a pair of Imperial mausoleums intended for Theodosius from Old St Peter’s which were built over or near the traditional spot of Peter’s crucifixion. His tomb is located in a spot that both churches use(d) as their centerpiece; the high altar. Assuming you approached St Peter’s Square from the typical direction (walking westward from Castel Sant Angelo or southward from the metro station), you are at the eastern edge of Piazza San Pietro, looking at the church façade. What you see in front of you is a vast flat area with the largest church in Christendom as the centerpiece.

This area did not always look like this; in ancient times the area where the church is now was a hill; the original architects of Old St Peter’s carted off part of the hill to make room for the church; the architects for New St Peter’s carted off more to make room for the bigger project. The spot you are currently standing on marks the corner of the north side of the track and the carcere (car CHAY ray), the starting gates. A slight turn to your left (counter or anti-clockwise) and you face down the northern edge of the track. The spina, the central divide of the track, began at a point about a third of the way down the straight structure on the left that connects the ellipse with the front of the church. The far end terminated well beyond the back of the current basilica, but the spina ended at a point perpendicular to the current church’s outer apse wall. The obelisk in the center of the square was originally placed on the center point of the spina in Nero’s time. Peter was crucified upside down on that spina in 64 CE. The legend is that Nero himself rode a chariot around the track as Peter was dying on his inverted crucifix. There’s nothing left of the stadium above ground, but a palazzo to your left apparently has some carcere remnants in it’s basement.

St Peter's Square and the Vatican at Night

Old St Peter’s in the Vatican

After Peter’s martyrdom, his followers buried him next to the circus, in a tomb that at the time was set into the bluff of the Vatican Hill. His was not the only tomb there, though. The necropolis was already well established, with a mixture of both pagan and Christian tomb sites. Constantine ordered a large church be built on the site to commemorate Peter’s martyrdom and to encourage the growth of the religion. The area was leveled and the church’s altar center built directly over the tomb. Construction was started in 321 and completed 8 years later. The original church’s design included a large atrium in the front surrounded by porticoes. In the center of the atrium was a fountain called the Fountain of Symmachus whose centerpiece was a large bronze pine cone. This pine cone still exists and can be seen in one of the courtyards of the Vatican Museum today. To help orient yourself; the actual entrance to the old church was pretty much in the same location as the entrance to the current church is. To get a very good idea of what Old St Peter’s looked like inside, we just need to visit San Paulo Fuori le Mura, a large basilica built next to the Ostiense Road south of the city. The layout and the style were very similar; both are and were five nave churches.

New St Peter’s in the Vatican

Eventually Old St Peter’s began to feel its age; the walls were threatening to collapse inward and destroy the church. A new church was decreed by Pope Julius II in 1505, construction began the next year and the project was completed in 1626, 120 years and 19 Popes later. Pope Julius II held a design competition and the winner was Donatello Bramante. Many of the entries can still be seen at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Michelangelo was given the title of capomaestro (literally “headmaster”) in 1547 and was able to ensure the completion of the project with his vision of the design nearly intact. It was during his time that the dome was begun to his design, an ovoid shape with two shells, an inner one and an outer one. The dome was completed in 1590 under the supervision of Giacomo della Porta. Standing above the altar under the dome is the 4 story high bronze baldacchino, created from the confiscation and melting of the bronze roofing tiles from the Pantheon. Designed by Bernini, this huge free-standing bronze altar cover and free-standing piece was started in 1623 and completed in 1634.

St Peter's Baldacchino

The final work in the area was to create the space of St Peter’s Square. The colonnade that surrounds the square was built to emulate the welcoming arms of the Church, with a trapezoidal area near the building that gives the illusion of the church being close than it is, and the second area further out, ellipsoidal in shape and surrounded by the almost but not quite enclosing colonnade.

St Peter's Square from the Dome

I have an album of photos from Rome and other places in Italy in my photo gallery.