Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Saint Peter's Basilica

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

In the early 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine ordered the construction of a church on the burial site of Saint Peter. It was the greatest church in Christianity. Centuries later, that building was falling apart, so Pope Julius II ordered the construction of a replacement church that would be newer and much bigger.  Learn more about St. Peter’s Basilica, the world’s largest church, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://podfollow.com/everythingeverywhere/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Darcy Adams Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Everything Everywhere is an Airwave Media podcast." or "Everything Everywhere is part of the Airwave Media podcast network Please contact [e-mail] to advertise on Everything Everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine ordered the construction of a church on the burial site of St. Peter. It was the greatest church in Christianity. Centuries later, that building was falling apart. So Pope Julius II ordered the construction of a replacement church that would be newer and much bigger. Learn more about St. Peter's Basilica, the world's largest church on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now.

Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. I've previously done an episode about Vatican City, but that episode dealt with how it came to exist as an institution and a tiny little country. In this episode, I just want to focus on the signature. building of the Vatican. In fact, the building which makes up an enormous part of the area of the country, St. Peter's Basilica. The current location of St. Peter's Basilica was originally outside the walls of Rome across the Tiber River. The site was known in Latin as the Agar Vaticanus. It was a swampy field that was prone to flooding on the Tiber, and it was known for having a lot of mosquitoes. As Rome expanded, the area was eventually drained and it was developed. For the purposes

of this story, it became notable for being the location of the Circus of Nero. The Circus of Circus of Nero, like the Circus Maximus, was a location for chariot racing and other events. It was located roughly where the southern half of St. Peter's Square and the basilica is today, pointing southwest to northeast. Supposedly, the circus was the first place where the organized execution of early Christians took place in the year 65, and it was supposed to also be the location where St. Peter was executed in the year 67 or 68. According to the axe of Peter, he was crucified upside down between two turning posts in the middle of the track. After his death, he was then buried in a cemetery that was directly across the Via Cornelia,

which was the street on the north side of the circus. The tradition at the time for early Christians was to bury martyrs as close to the location of their martyrdom as possible. Over time, the tomb became a pilgrimage site, but it was never a formal shrine or a church, as Christianity still wasn't looked upon favorably by the Roman state in the first few centuries. All of that changed in the fourth century when Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity. He decided that Rome should have the biggest and greatest church in the world, so he began construction of a church on the site where Peter was buried. As part of the construction, they leveled the hillside where the cemetery was located

and used the soil from the hill to bury the rest of the cemetery. More on that in a bit. The building, which Emperor Constantine created, is known today as old St. Peter's Basilica. And here I should note the meaning of the word basilica. Today, a basilica is simply a title given to a historically or architecturally significant church. However, a basilica was originally a style of architecture used for a public Roman building. In particular, it had a long central nave with two side aisles. You can still see this architecture style today in various Roman ruins around the Mediterranean

and in very old Christian churches. In Rome, you can still see the style of building at St. Paul's outside the wall. Old St. Peter's was an exceptional building for its time. and became filled with many treasures. Unfortunately, before the 9th century, the church was still outside the walls of Rome, and it was an easy target for groups that were raiding the city. The basilica grew in importance over time

as the papacy became more powerful. Charlemagne was crowned the Holy Roman Emperor there, as were most popes, and many noteworthy people were also buried there. Over time, the building fell into a dilapidated state. In the 15th century, the architect Bernardo Rosalino noted that one of the walls was actually very near collapse, Many popes wanted to do something about the church, starting with Nicholas V in the mid-15th century. He commissioned a major renovation of St. Peter's and actually dismantled the large part of the

Coliseum to get marble for the church. The pope that is most associated with St. Peter's has to be Julius II. His initial plan was to preserve Old St. Peter's. However, the plan soon shifted towards demolishing the building and building something newer and grander. So, in 1505, old St. Peter's was demolished. The architect Danato Bramante drew up the initial design for the new St. Peter's. His design was originally a Greek cross with a massive dome held up by four enormous pillars. The dome was inspired by the dome at the Pantheon in Rome. The dome and the pillars are really the only part of the original design which made it into the

final building. A series of eight architects took the job over the course of 120 years, and that list includes the artist Raphael and Michelangelo. The church was eventually consecrated and considered open on November 18th, 1626. I'm kind of rushing through the entire building process because I want to spend more time on the building itself. Let's start with the superlatives. St. Peter's is still, after 400 years, the biggest church in the world. The interior dome is the highest dome in the world at 117.5 meters or 385.5 feet. This record is not just for church domes, but actually any type of dome. The interior is 15,160 square meters or 163,180 feet. And also, St. Peter's is not a cathedral. The cathedral for Rome is actually St. John's Lateran. Immediately outside of the church

is St. Peter Square, which Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed. The square is surrounded by a colonnade that has statues of saints on the top, and it can hold up to 300,000 people. The square has two fountains, the first of which was designed by Carlo Maderno, and the second was a copy designed by Bernini. A special note is the Egyptian obelisk in the middle of the square. The obelisk was actually part of the Circus of Nero. It originally came from Heliopolis, Egypt, but the data was erected and the pharaoh who erected it are unknown, as there were actually no hieroglyphics on it at the time. The obelisk was moved by order of Augustus to Alexandria, and then in the year 40 it was shipped to Rome for the new Vatican circus by the Emperor Caligula.

Moving it and shipping it across the sea was incredibly difficult. A special ship had to be built to move it, and when the ship arrived at the Roman part of Ostia, they actually filled it with cement and used it as a breakwater for the harbor. It was then sailed up the tiber to the location of the circus, where it was installed in the center of the track, and it stood there during the entire time of the old basilica. It was moved in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V to its current location. On the day it was moved, it took a crew of hundreds of men. Erecting an obelisk is actually a very risky operation, and on the day it was erected, the Pope said that anyone who interrupted by talking to the men

would face the death penalty, and he even erected a gallows in St. Peter Square just to scare everybody. There are actually several obelists in Rome, but the Vatican Obelisk is the only one that has never fallen over. The facade of St. Peter's was also designed by Carlo Maderno, who is one of the eight primary architects. Written across the front of the facade in Latin is text that says the following. In honor of the Prince of the Apostles, Paul V, Borghese, a Roman supreme pontiff in the year 1612, the 7th of his pontificate. Once you enter through the facade, you'll see several massive doors.

One of those doors is called the Holy Door. The Holy Door is made of bronze, and it was actually cast in 1950, replaced. the original wooden door. It is only open during Jubilee years which take place once every 25 years, or when the Pope proclaims a special Jubilee year. Inside, there are no permanent pews. There are temporary ones that can be moved if a service is being held. The interior can hold as many as 60,000 people if everyone is standing, and 35,000 with seating. Inside, you'll find several important works of art. The greatest work has to be Michelangelo's Pieta, the sculpture that depicts Mary holding Jesus after he's been taken off the cross.

Michelangela created it when he was only 25 years old, and personally, I think it's his greatest sculpture ever. In May of 1972, a deranged Australian named Laslo Toth attacked the sculpture with a hammer. He hit it 15 times, removing Mary's arm and part of her nose. The sculpture was repaired, but if you visit St. Peter's today, that's the reason why you'll find it behind bulletproof glass. The other notable work is the sarcophagus cover in the baptistry. It's made of rare Egyptian porphyry, which is a purple rock that was used for kings and emperors. The cover was used in the tomb of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II, but it's believed to have originally come from the mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian. The four main pillars which hold up the dome house the basilica's main holy relics.

One corner is delegated to St. Helena, and it supposedly contains parts of the true cross and the nails used in the crucifixion. Another corner is of St. Veronica, and it has the cloth supposedly used to wipe the face of Jesus. Another corner is devoted to St. Longinus, who is the Roman centurion who pierced the sight of Christ, and it supposedly has the spear tip which was used. And finally is a pillar devoted to St. Andrew, the Apostle, and part of the cross that he was crucified on. The focus of the church is the altar. The altar is covered by a baldachino, or a canopy. The baldacino and its spiral pillars were also designed by Bernini. The main altar is the only altar in the basilica, which only the Pope can use.

Underneath the altar is the reason why the basilica is there in the first place, the tomb of St. Peter. After the new basilica was built, the tomb was sort of forgotten. Everyone knew it was down there, but that was about the end of it. Starting in 1939, the Vatican began to excavate under the altar. I mentioned before that Constantine just used the hillside to cover the original Roman cemetery. while in 1942 they found in the old Roman cemetery carved Latin text pointing to Petrus, and then finally text indicating this is Peter. Right where the sign was, they found the bones of a man who died about 2,000 years ago

and who was between the age of 60 and 70. Surrounding the burial site of Peter is also believed to be the burial sites of several of the very early popes. The ancient Roman cemetery is called the Scavi, and you can actually go down there if you reserve a tour ahead of time. time. Spaces are extremely limited and they only allow 10 people to go on the tour at a time, and you can't bring your camera. One other thing I should mention that few people bother to do is in the other direction, up. You can actually walk up to the very top of the dome, which will give you one of the best views of St. Peter Square and all of Rome. In between the wall of the inner and

outer domes is a staircase that spirals up to the top to an observation deck at the very top of the dome. It is a strange walk as it leans inward and it spirals around and it's very narrow, but it's well worth the climb if you can do it. There's obviously a lot more to St. Peter's Basilica than what I mentioned. The entire church is dripping with history. There are at least 148 popes buried in St. Peter's, not to mention all the coronations and other artwork which can be found inside. If you visit Rome, I'd recommend you at least give yourself a full day to visit the Vatican. and the best time to visit St. Peter's itself is usually in the afternoon when most of the tour buses have left. While there is a security checkpoint, there is no entrance fee, and anyone is welcome regardless of religion.

And if you should happen to visit, I suggest buying a guidebook or even hiring a guide, so that you can get a better understanding of the world's biggest church. Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thorne Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener trying to find name not taken over at Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, Pretty great podcast. I've learned quite a bit from this podcast.

It's very informative, and I recommend it to others frequently. The only complaint I have is that during the episode about the internal combustion engine, the claim is made that such engines have to have an even number of cylinders. This is obviously not true. Radial aircraft engines have an odd number of cylinders. Having said that, this podcast covers a huge scope of topics, and I find it pretty credible, 99.9% accurate. Thanks, trying to find name not taken.

I have previously addressed the great odd-numbered piston incident in another episode. I probably had more comments about that episode than any other, besides, of course, the great legendary Bill Buckner error. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you two can have it read on the show.