St. Peter's Square

A monumental plaza in Vatican City, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and serving as the main public approach to St. Peter's Basilica.

St. Peter's Basilica: A Renaissance and Baroque church in Vatican City, built over the traditional burial place of Saint Peter. The square frames the basilica's façade and serves as its principal public forecourt.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini: An Italian sculptor, architect, and painter who became a leading artist of the Roman Baroque. He designed the square's defining colonnades and overall spatial arrangement.
Ellipse: A closed curve whose points have a constant sum of distances from two foci. The piazza's oval plan organizes its colonnades around two focal points.
Urbi et Orbi: A solemn papal blessing traditionally delivered to the city of Rome and the world on major feast days. The pope gives this blessing from the basilica's central balcony to crowds in the square.
Colonnade: A row of columns supporting a roof or entablature, often used to define an open architectural space. Bernini's curved colonnades define the square's monumental embrace.
Pope Alexander VII: Pope from 1655 to 1667, known as a patron of Baroque architecture and urban projects in Rome. He commissioned Bernini's redesign of the approach to St. Peter's Basilica.
Optical illusion: A visual effect in which perception differs from the physical properties of what is seen. The colonnade's alignment can make its multiple rows of columns appear as one.
Easter: The principal Christian feast celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter draws large crowds to the square for papal celebrations and the Urbi et Orbi blessing.
Vatican Obelisk: An ancient Egyptian obelisk in St. Peter's Square, brought to Rome in antiquity and moved to its present position in 1586. It anchors the square's central axis and predates the plaza's Baroque design.
Construction of St. Peter's Square: The seventeenth-century building campaign that created the monumental forecourt of St. Peter's Basilica. Its phases explain how Bernini's plans became the present plaza.

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