St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square

1656-1657

7639

Piazza of St. Peter's

Bernini, Gian Lorenzo

Italian

open spaces

Italy (nation)

Rome (inhabited place)

Baroque

Neoclassical

squares (open spaces)

piazzas (squares)

Bird's-eye view of St. Peter's Square in Rome, Italy. "Four rows of simple and majestic Doric columns—300 all together—carved from Roman travertine form an oval 650 feet across the long axis marked by three monuments: laterally by fountains propelling tall jets of water and in the center by an Egyptian obelisk that had served as a turning post in the chariot races at the ancient Circus of Nero. As they enter the piazza, the faithful are embraced by "the motherly arms of the church," Bernini's own description of his Colonnade. The Colonnade becomes simultaneously a dramatic frame for the church, a nurturing enclosure for the crowds of faithful, and a stage for the processions and other sacred spectacles on which, at this particular period, the Catholic Church so strongly depended for its appeal,"--Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. p343.

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