The Sistine Chapel … St. Peter’s Square … Saint Peter’s Basilica … The home of Pope Francis., What do all these famous places have in common? They are all in The Vatican City. Vatican City, an independent state within the city of Rome, is ruled by the Pope and is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. (Ruhl 1) (Blake 2)
Vatican city, the smallest country, has the smallest population in the world. The Vatican stamps their own coins (Ruhl 3). The full name of the country is the State of Vatican City, and it is the spiritual and governing center of the Roman Catholic Church. Vatican is usually referred to as a City State and often called “The Holy See”. It stands on Vatican Hill in northwestern Rome, Italy west of
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The men main duty is to protect the Pope. The Swiss Guards wear colorful uniforms protecting the Guards since 1506 (Klein 3). To be a Swiss Guard, have to be Catholic and take the oath of loyalty to the Pope. The men have to be at least 5’8.5 inches tall and between the ages 19 to 30 (Ruhl 4). Swiss Guard Commander, Alois Estermann and his wife, were killed by another Swiss Guard, Cedric Tornay, who later killed himself (Ruhl 5). On April 18, 1506, Pope Nicholas V begins rebuilding and expanding St. Peter’s Basilica. According to researchers Basilica is the world’s second, the largest Christian church after Yamoussoukro Basilica in Côte d 'ivoire. Michelangelo designed the dome of Basilica, 400 feet tall and 138 feet in diameter. St. Peter’s Basilica has the shape of a cross 700 feet long, 450 feet wide and is standing on 18,000 square yards or more. The building can hold more than 60,000 people, it is a beautiful place to see and is one of the many visited places in Vatican. The original Basilica was built in 326 AD by Emperor Constantine. Between 1473 to 1481 Vatican workers constructed the Sistine Chapel. But this was designed mainly for the Pope, not for the people of Vatican. Michelangelo spent four years painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Architect Giovanni dei Dolci, the designer, Raphael, a decorator, continued for 60 years, even after construction was finished. The Sistine Chapel is one of the
St. Peter’s Basilica is an Italian Renaissance Church in Vatican City, the papal enclave within the city of Rome. Designed principally by Donate Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lerinzi Bremen. St. Peter’s is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and is also one of the largest churches in the world. While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, St. Peter’s is regarded as one of the holiest Christian shrines.
The architectural construction of the Sistine Chapel was between 1475-1481. The historical and psychological substance of the Sistine Chapel’s birth was evident in his conflicts between the Franciscan factions, giving the Conventuals his favor, together with his long-term pursuit to canonize St. Bonaventure. The Sistine Chapel, under the reign of Sixtus IV, contained fresco decorative paintings. The painted imagery contained the first 30 Popes along with Martyrs, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, which was the altarpiece, among Christian iconography of the Christ and Moses, whom was a popular theme in the chapel by the Pope’s request. This, however, was destroyed several years later to become what we now know as Michelangelo's Last Judgment in
The Renaissance was a time of great achievement, and St. Peter’s Basilica includes many features that make it one of the greatest churches in the world. The church was originally built around the time of ancient Rome, but after a fire left it permanently damaged, the church was rebuilt during the Renaissance in the year 1506. During the reconstruction, the well-known artist, Michelangelo, was the head architect responsible for rebuilding the church. Because the Renaissance marked the birth of new ideas, many forgotten architectural styles were integrated into the church. St. Peter's Basilica perfectly represents the architectural styles of the Renaissance period because of Michelangelo's style, techniques, and perspective.
The bishop was also in charge of building two other churches, San Michele and Santa Maria, but “San Vitale is larger in scale than these two churches, designed as a centrally planned octagonal two-story congressional church” (Tronchin and Knight 130).The church features “two centric octagons. The dome covered inner octagon rises above the surrounding octagon to provide the interior with clerestory lighting” (Gardner and Kleiner B: 255). This octagon shape brings the parishioners to the center of the church, allowing them to become part of the service, which is not found in a traditional church. The dome is constructed on eight piers and arches which are surrounded by an ambulatory and a gallery. Much of the inside is marble and gold and the church walls have many windows to let the sun in to shine on this gold. “Light filtered through the alabaster-paned windows and plays over glittering mosaics and flowing marble” (Gardner 255) which shows the beauty and lavish pieces Justinian put into this construction, even though the outside is dull and made mostly of bricks. However, this becomes another difference concerning these two monuments. The dome of San Vitale shows the Roman influence, with a figure of Christ, marbles and glittering galleries and the Dome of the Rock features a more ordinary approach with geometric shapes and calligraphy as well as extraordinary colors used in Islamic
Because of its area on the Montmartre slope, the basilica towers over the city; its most elevated point is considerably higher than the highest point of the Eiffel Tower. On account of this conspicuous area the Sacré-Coeur Basilica is a standout amongst the most Sacré-Coeur, Parisnoticeable points of interest in Paris.
Saint Peter’s Square is a design and built by Bernini between 1656 and 1667. It is a two sided, semi-circular church that symbolizing as stretched arms embracing the world. The church has four rows of columns that had 284 Doric columns and 88 pilasters.
The heart of Rome is the Vatican, from which the Papacy rules the city. The Vatican is a great walled enclave which itself includes several sites of note, among them:
St. Peter’s basilica is one of Rome’s oldest churches. Built in the 4th century, it was demolished and built again over the course of several decades, today it is the home of the Pope. The present day St. Peters represents different periods of time. This building has become a monument and has gained fame for several of its elements; one of which is the Baldacchino, which is an elaborate and ornate structure located, at the crossing of the apse and the nave. St. Peter's is a combination of different ideals and times. The heavy embellishment of the grand structure that is the Baldacchino not only ties in with the Baroque style of the church, but each element also has deeper meanings with various interpretations.
The Catholic Church possesses some unique features that differentiates it from any other Christian Denomination. The deity of the Church believe that the Pope is the successor from an unbroken, direct line to the Apostle
The Vatican City is known as the center for Roman Catholic Religion. St.Peter’s is also known as the largest church in the world. Inside the church there are many famous examples of Baroque and Renaissance artwork present. Some of the featured artist includes Michelangelo and Bernini. The Basilica di Santa Croce is also another famous church located in Florence, Italy. This is known as a Franciscan church in the town of Florence. Within the church there are 16 different chapels. The very influential Michelangelo is also buried within these walls. If you do ever visit any of these historical structures you should avoid wearing anything too “revealing.”
Originally, the Sistine Chapel's vaulted ceiling was painted blue and covered with golden stars. The walls were adorned with frescoes by different artists, such as Pietro Perugino, who painted Christ delivering the keys to St. Peter there in 1482.
In the Great Fire of London in 1666, nearly 13,000 houses, over 90 churches and historical building burned down, leaving hundreds and thousands of people of London homeless. One famous historical building that burned down in the Fire was the old St. Paul’s Cathedral. Within days of the Fire, King Charles II started the plans to rebuild the city and gave the task of rebuilding the Cathedral to architect Christopher Wren. Wren had already started working on plans to renovate and repair the Cathedral in 1661, five years before the Great Fire in 1666, so subsequently he continued to lead and design the construction of the new and present St. Paul’s Cathedral. Like many of the buildings and homes that were rebuilt in London after the Great Fire,
Rome stretches from across the middle section of Italy from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic Sea. Rome is the art center of the city-states. Artists and scholars thrive here. With Pope Nicholas V in charge, education and art will always be of great value here. There is no trade here; however, religious pilgrims and church business provide most of the income
“But there stands close by another church, renowned for its princely decoration, for the great multitude to enter then, a lofty church with towering walls, and a great one by reason of its proud grandeur, and gifts made it rich” (Prudentius, 319). One reading this would assume that this building is just another church in Rome. In fact, the building that is described in this quote is the basilica of S Lorenzo fuori le mura; one of the six, so far discovered basilicas that are apse-ended. Apart from this similarity, they all also have a lot of the dead buried within, under and around them, and are usually situated around catacombs. The reason these basilicas are so controversial is because scholars disagree
Millions of people live in Italy and it is located in western Europe. Italy is close to France and Austria and the capital of Italy is Rome. The people in Italy speak Italian and most of the time the weather in Italy is nice. A famous painter named Michelangelo has made lots of famous paintings in Italy. Pompeii is a city in Italy that was buried under the ashes of a large volcano. Thousands of people died after the volcano erupted. The currency