St. Peter’s Square

St. Peter’s Square is the monumental forecourt of St. Peter’s Basilica and one of the principal public religious spaces of Vatican City. Pope Alexander VII commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to redesign the area, and the project was completed in 1667 after eleven years of work. Bernini formed the piazza around a broad oval embraced by two semicircular colonnades, linked to the basilica by connecting arms.

The official basilica history records 284 columns arranged in four rows and 140 statues crowning the colonnade. At the centre stands the Vatican obelisk, transferred in the sixteenth century from the area of the ancient circus associated with the Neronian persecutions; in the square’s Christian setting it is surmounted by a cross.

The square is not included because of a miracle or apparition tradition, but because of its continuing role in Catholic worship and pilgrimage. It regularly serves as the setting for papal audiences, the Sunday Angelus and other public papal celebrations, making it a living ceremonial extension of the basilica rather than simply an architectural plaza. Together with the rest of Vatican City, it forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage property inscribed in 1984.