Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter’s Square, or Piazza San Pietro, is instantly recognisable for its sweeping, oval embrace of Bernini’s design. At the center sits the ancient Egyptian obelisk, erected on this site in 1586, framing the square and guiding the eye toward St. Peter’s Basilica. Bernini designed the surrounding space about a century after the obelisk was placed, shaping the colossal Tuscan colonnades that extend in two great arcs to shelter and welcome visitors. The piazza functions as the papal forecourt, crafted under Pope Alexander VII to accommodate the crowd for blessings delivered from the basilica façade or the Vatican Palace windows. Bernini’s work uses the Tuscan order to harmonize with the grand façade by Carlo Maderno, while the space itself was engineered to convey awe before the scale of the church and the Holy See. …
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