Piazza San Pietro, Rome - PICTURES FROM ITALY (Est. 2001)

Piazza San Pietro

1/3/2017

Private Tours of the Vatican Museums

Aerial view of Piazza San Pietro, Rome

Piazza San Pietro

The Piazza San Pietro, which was commissioned by Pope Alexander VII (r. 1655-67), was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) and built between 1656 and 1667.

The piazza is made up of two distinct parts. The first part is an oval space (196 m by 148 m), which is bordered by two semi-circular colonnades, made up of a total of 284 columns. The second part, intended to link the basilica to the oval, is a trapezium flanked by two arms.

The 140 statues of saints and martyrs were sculpted to Bernini’s designs by his large team of assistants.

Aerial view of Basilica di San Pietro and Piazza San Pietro, Rome

Aerial view

Colonnade, Piazza San Pietro, Rome

Colonnade

Statues on Colonnade, Piazza San Pietro, Rome

Statues on the south colonnade

Coat of arms of Pope Alexander VIl, Piazza San Pietro, Rome

Coat of arms of Pope Alexander VIl

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My name is David Lown and I am an art historian from Cambridge, England.

Since 200I I have been living in Italy, where I run private tours of Florence, Rome &
Venice.

Posts: 2016

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