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Piazza Retta
St. Peter’s Square, or Piazza San Pietro, opens up before you as a grand, oval forecourt designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Italian Baroque style. The square sits directly in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, named after Saint Peter, the apostle Catholics consider the first Pope. At its heart stands the Vatican obelisk, an ancient Egyptian monument erected at this site in 1586, aligned to center the view toward the basilica. Bernini’s colossal colonnades, four rows deep in Tuscan order, embrace visitors with a sense of “the maternal arms of Mother Church,” a phrase that captures how the space funnels praise and awe toward the sacred interior. A granite fountain by Bernini, completed in 1675, complements an earlier fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613, creating a pair that anchors the plaza. …
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