St Peter's Square

St Peter's Square, spreading before the basilica, is one of the greatest and most beautiful public spaces in the world, a masterpiece of Baroque design by the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Completed in the seventeenth century, its vast oval is embraced by two sweeping, semicircular colonnades of nearly three hundred towering columns, topped by a crown of statues of saints, arms reaching out, in Bernini's own words, to embrace the faithful. At its centre rises an ancient Egyptian obelisk, flanked by fountains. The ceremonial heart of the Catholic world, the square fills with vast crowds for papal blessings and audiences, and offers the grandest approach to the basilica.

History

The Vatican obelisk, brought from Egypt in ancient times, was set up at the centre of the square in 1586, and Carlo Maderno built a granite fountain beside it in 1613. Under Pope Alexander VII, Gian Lorenzo Bernini redesigned the space from 1667 to 1676 as a forecourt where the greatest number of people could see the pope give his blessing, with colossal Tuscan colonnades four columns deep that embrace visitors, in his words, in the maternal arms of Mother Church, while masking the jumble of the Vatican Palace without hiding the papal apartments. In 1675 he added a second fountain to match Maderno's, making the two the foci of his oval (Wikipedia, St. Peter's Square).

What to look for

• Bernini's colonnade - the sweeping columns crowned with statues.
• The obelisk - the ancient Egyptian obelisk at the centre.
• The fountains - the Baroque fountains flanking the obelisk.
• The papal audiences - the crowds gathering for the Pope.

When to go

Year-round; the square is open and free at all hours, magnificent by day and beautifully floodlit at night. For a papal blessing, the Pope typically delivers the Angelus on Sundays at noon and holds a general audience on Wednesdays when in residence, drawing great crowds, so arrive early for these; at other times the square is grand and atmospheric to simply stroll.

Before you go

The square is one of the busiest tourist sites in Rome, with security screening to enter and enormous crowds during papal events, and it is exposed and hot under the summer sun; timing a visit around the crowds, or coming in the calm of early morning or evening, is rewarding. As a supreme masterpiece of Baroque design, Bernini's magnificent colonnaded embrace centred on an ancient obelisk, and the ceremonial heart of the Catholic world, though, St Peter's Square is genuinely awe-inspiring and unmissable.

Nearby

St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museums and Rome are all around.

Key facts