Saint Peter's Square (, ) is located directly in front of
St. Peter's Basilica in
Vatican City, the
papal enclave within
Rome (the Piazza borders to the East the
rione of
Borgo).
History of St. Peter's Square
The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini from
1656 to
1667, under the direction of
Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). Bernini had been working on the interior of St. Peter's for decades; now he gave order to the space with his renowned
colonnades, using the
Tuscan form of
Doric, the simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the palace-like façade by
Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and evoke emotions awe.
The site's possibilities were under many constraints from existing structures (
illustration, right). The massed accretions of the
Vatican Palace crowded the space to the right of the basilica's façade; the structures needed to be masked without obscuring the papal apartments. The
obelisk marked a center, and a granite fountain by
Carlo MadernoIt was set up in 1613 by order of
Paul V stood to one side: Bernini made the fountain appear to be one of the foci of the
ellipseThe actual foci are marked...
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