THE VATICAN GROTTOES
Under the floor of St. Peter’s Basilica there is a 3 metre high crypt: the interspace between the Constantinian basilica and the floor of the church: these are the Grotte Vaticane, the crypts or caves, under which the Necropolis (1st-4th century AD) with the...
THE APOSTOLIC PALACE IN THE VATICAN
For over a thousand years the popes lived in Rome’s Cathedral, San Giovanni in Laterano – Saint John Lateran, built by emperor Constantine in the fourth century. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD), the barbarian invasions and political instability, a...
THE BASILICA OF SAINT PETER’S IN NUMBERS
A story told through numbers The magnificent Vatican basilica as we see it today, is the result of a gigantic enterprise that lasted for centuries, and is in fact still on-going: this timeline gave birth to the Italian proverb “è come la fabbrica di S. Pietro” –...