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The Basilica of Saint Peter is located inside of the
Vatican City and has the largest
interior of any Christian
church in the world. In order to appreciate the scale
of the Basilica I left some of the tourists at the bottom of the pictures. The Basilica is one of the holiest places of
Christianity with the burial site of Saint Peter
at the focal point of a latin cross floor plan under a 30m pavilion-like structure called the
Baldachin built by
Gianlorenzo Bernini.
The original Basilica was completed in 333 by
Emperor Constantine and by the end of the 15th century
has fallen into disrepair. Pope Nicholas V (1447–55) commissioned that
the Basilica be rebuilt and had 2,500 cartloads of stone removed from the
Colosseum. In 1505
Pope Julius II demolished the old Basilica
and ran a competition for the building of a new Basilica which was won by
Donato Bramante. Over the next 120 years
with the help of many popes and architects, Saint Peter's Basilica was eventually completed in 1590.
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Rome - Saint Peter's Basilica
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