Discover St. Peter's Square

You are standing in a courtyard, surrounded by hundreds of other people equally awed by the majesty of the sights you are all-seeing. Before you, over 400 feet tall and almost 400 years old, rises the magnificent Saint Peter's Cathedral. As you turn to glance about the elliptical colonnade in wonder, you are greeted with the sight of hundreds of pillars holding up the ancient Baroque architecture. When your eyes reach the center of the square, you are greeted by the sight of an ancient Egyptian obelisk dating back to the 13th century BC. To either side of the obelisk are fountains and beyond it the road leading into the square. You are standing in Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City within Rome.

The architecture of Saint Peter's Square was designed to be awe-inspiring, leading, as it does, up to the great Saint Peter's Cathedral (or the Basilica of Saint Peter). The design was by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and the Square was built over time from 1656 to 1667 by Pope Alexander VII's order. The Pope wanted as many people as possible to see him give his blessing from the Cathedral or a window in the Vatican Palace. Bernini, who had worked on the Cathedral's interior for decades, now designed the approach to be as awe-inspiring as possible. 

The site presented a challenge for Bernini, with the Vatican Palace crowding in on the Cathedral and the obelisk and one fountain already placed in the existing Piazza before the Cathedral. Bernini had to mask the Vatican Palace without obscuring the papal apartments and was forced to work the existing elements into his design. The solution he came up with was brilliant, using the obelisk as the centerpiece of the Square and the existing fountain as the foci of the oval created by his massive colonnades. He created a second fountain in the interest of symmetry, which was completed in 1675, just five years before his death.

The Doric colonnades are four columns deep and frame the entrance to the Cathedral of Saint Peter. Bernini was supposed to have described his colonnades as 'the maternal arms of Mother Church', gathering the flock toward the Cathedral itself. At the center of the oval still stands the Egyptian obelisk, moved to Rome in AD 37 by Emperor Caligula. 

The Vatican Obelisk was moved from a nearby square to the Saint Peter's Square in 1586 by the great engineer, Domenico Fontana under orders from Pope Sixtus V. Re-erecting the obelisk in the square required considerable effort due to the vast weight of it, and the erection was memorialized in a collection of engravings. The Vatican Obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since Roman rule. During the movement and re-erection process, Fontana removed the ancient metal ball that had been atop the obelisk and was rumored to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar but found only dust within. The ball is on display in a Rome museum. 

The spina that once occupied the Grand Avenue leading up to the Square was demolished by Mussolini over the course of a year, being completed in October of 1937. Saint Peter's Cathedral is now visible all the way from the Castel Sant Angelo. The approach may have lost the sense of surprise with this demolition, but neither the Square nor the Cathedral of Saint Peter have lost their majesty and awe-inspiring qualities. Standing in the Square is like paying homage to the great architects and engineers of our past.

An oval that performs a trick, from two marked spots. The reference work records focal points marked in the paving by roundels of stone six or seven metres beyond the outer ring of the compass rose centred on the obelisk, on either side. From those two points the four concentric rows of the colonnade align, and a structure four columns deep reads as one. Everything else about the square's geometry follows from wanting that to happen.

The shape is the other half. Turismo Roma attributes the characteristic elliptical form directly to the colonnade; the reference work gives the ovato tondo as 240 metres across. An oval, unlike a circle, has two centres — which is what gives the square two focal points rather than one, and what lets the arms reach forward to gather an approaching crowd.

The counts do not agree. Turismo Roma: 284 columns set radially in four rows. The reference work: 248 columns and 88 pilasters, with 140 over-lifesize saints crowning the cornice. Both are reported here; neither source explains the difference.

The vertical element is two thousand years older than the square. The obelisk is red granite, standing over 25 metres and reaching nearly 40 with its base and cross. It was originally erected in Heliopolis, Egypt, by an unknown pharaoh, and moved to its current site in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana — eighty years before there was a colonnade to put round it.

The fountains are a matched pair made sixty years apart. A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 answers another designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613.

The centre came first, by eighty years. The obelisk was moved to this site in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana — a famous feat of rigging, since the thing is a single piece of red granite over 25 metres long. Everything afterwards is arranged around a point that was already fixed.

Then one fountain, then a square, then a matching fountain. Maderno designed a fountain in 1613. Bernini's colonnade followed — Turismo Roma gives eleven years of work, 1656 to 1667; the reference work dates his redesign of the open space 1667 to 1676. In 1675 Bernini constructed a granite fountain to match Maderno's, sixty-two years after the first.

The hard part was the geometry, not the masonry. Four concentric rows of columns had to be set so that from two specific points in the paving they would align into one. That means every column's position is a consequence of where those two roundels are, and the ovato tondo — 240 metres across — is the shape that makes it possible.

The two accounts of the work do not match. 284 columns in four rows against 248 columns and 88 pilasters; 1656-1667 against 1667-1676. This page reports both and reconciles neither.

Does it cost anything? No. It is an open public square with no ticket and no closing time.

What is the trick with the columns? Two roundels of stone are set in the paving either side of the obelisk, six or seven metres beyond the compass rose. Stand on one and the colonnade's four rows line up into a single file of columns.

How many columns are there? The sources differ. Turismo Roma says 284, set radially in four rows; the reference work says 248 columns and 88 pilasters, with 140 over-lifesize saints on the cornice. The page gives both.

When was it built? Also disputed: Turismo Roma gives eleven years of work, 1656 to 1667; the reference work dates Bernini's redesign of the space to 1667-1676.

Where is the obelisk from? It was originally erected in Heliopolis, Egypt, by an unknown pharaoh and moved to this site in 1586 by Domenico Fontana. Red granite, over 25 metres, nearly 40 with base and cross.

Are the two fountains a pair? They match but were made sixty-two years apart: Maderno's in 1613 and Bernini's in 1675.

What happens on Sunday? Turismo Roma records that every Sunday at noon a large crowd gathers for the Angelus Domini and the Pope's blessing.

How long does it take? About 30 minutes.