ITALY : St Peters Basilica
St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City in Rome is the sacred heart of the
Catholic faith. It is stands on the ruins of a church erected by the
Emperor Constantine in the early 4th century AD. Completed in 1626, the
building
remains the supreme ecclesiastical monument in Christendom, not only for its
size - it covers 2.3 ha - but for the awesome Renaissance monuments and
artworks filling its cavernous interior. The massive dome was designed by
Michelangelo, chief architect of St Peter's best known for his fresco
depicting The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace,
official residence of the Pope. St Peter's Basilica is a famous place
of pilgrimage through its historic links and for its association with the
Papacy. Belief that the remains of the St Peter the Apostle are buried under
the altar began the tradition of popes being interred there - the crypt
contains the simple tomb of Pope John Paul II. Holding some 60,000 people,
St Peter's is always filled with worshippers and religious tourists with
hundreds of thousands travelling to Rome for the Papal Easter blessing when
the Piazza de San Pietro is packed with pilgrims.
The City of the Vatican is the smallest state in the world having all the
privileges of an autonomous state including its own philatelic and
numismatic values and a permanent observer member at the UN. It was
inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1984 cited as a unique spiritual
assemblage of architectural and artistic masterpieces.