St Peter’s Basilica

The new St Peter’s took 120 years to build, under the leading architects of the Renaissance and the Baroque. Bramante began in 1506 with a central plan, Michelangelo gave the dome its form, and Carlo Maderno extended the nave and designed the façade. The dome is 136 metres high.

The old St Peter’s from the time of Constantine was dilapidated when Pope Julius II decided to replace it in 1506. Bramante designed a church in the form of a Greek cross with a dome in the middle, an ideal image of Renaissance thinking about the perfect form. After his death in 1514 the work dragged on, and several architects succeeded one another, among them Raphael and Antonio da Sangallo.

Michelangelo took over in 1546, aged 71, and returned to the central plan but made it more powerful. His dome was completed after his death by Giacomo della Porta in 1590. In the 17th century Carlo Maderno extended the church into a Latin cross to hold more worshippers, which means the dome is partly hidden behind the façade when you stand in the square. The church was consecrated in 1626, and the sale of indulgences to finance the building was one of the sparks of the Reformation.

• Renaissance
• Donato Bramante
• Michelangelo Buonarroti