St. Peter's Square
Vatican City
Rome Italy
2016

Pius IX (1846-1878) decided to replace older statues of Sts. Peter and Paul, with the current larger ones on Easter 1847. The previous pope, Gregory XVI (1831-1846) had commissioned Giuseppe De Fabris to sculpt this statue for St. Paul Outside-the-Walls from 1838-1840.

The statue of St. Peter is 5.55m in height, on a pedestal 4.91m high.

https://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/StPeterStatue/StPeterStatue.htm

The replaced, older statues of Sts. Peter and Paul were the work of Paolo di Mariano, called the Taccone, and his workshop (1461-1462), and are currently in a room of the Library of Sixtus IV, in the Apostolic Palaces. In 1849, the stonecutters, Angelo Bezzi, Fortunato Martinori and Vincenzo Biancheri, completed the tall pedestals, decorating them with the heraldic emblems of Pius IX and of the Reverend Fabbric of St. Peter, indicated with the letters R.F.S.P. In the internal mirror of the base, there is the inscription:
PONT. MAX. / PETRI APOSTOLORVM PRINCIPIS / SIGNVM / MAGNITVDINI TEMPLI VAT. PAR / HEIC OPPORTVNO IN LOCO / STARE IVSSIT / ANNO MDCCCXLVII / SCARI PRINCIPATVS EIVS I / LAVRENTIO LVCIDI CVR. OP. VAT.

(The Pontiff ordered the images themselves here, in a suitable place, equal to the size of the temple of Peter prince of the Apostles. In the year 1847, the first of his pontificate, while he was curator of the Vatican Works Lorenzo Lucidi)



Saint Peter's Square is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave in Rome, directly west of the neighborhood of Borgo. Both the square and the basilica are named after Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus whom Catholics consider to be the first Pope.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Square

Vatican City’s gigantic square, the St. Peter’s Square was built by Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1656 and 1667 and is located on the St. Peter’s Basilica. This is the square where the giant St. Peter and Egyptian Obelisk can be found.

The St. Peter’s Square and St. Peter’s Basilica was a portion of the former Circus of Nero stadium. The former stadium stands about 560 meters and has a width of 80 meters.

One of the magnificent features that produced the equilibrium of the St. Peter’s Square is the obelisk and twin fountains. In 1586, Pope Sixtus V gave order to move the Egyptian Obelisk to the right side of the St. Peter’s Square, above the pontifical colonnade called Apostolic Palace. On both sides of the marble stone obelisk are the two identical fountains. The first one was designed by Maderno in 1612 and the twin fountain was installed by Bernini in 1675. The twin fountain is spraying water from Lake Bracciano and it reaches a height of about 14 meters into the air. This is the exact place of the St. Peter’s square where you can witness the Pope in Rome gives his annual Easter blessing, pronounces canonization and prays Angelus at 12 pm on Sundays from the window of his office with all attendees on the ground.

Additionally, St. Peter’s Square is encircled on both sides by 284 Doric columns and 88 pilasters, the semi-circular colonnades, which embody the overextended arms of the mother church embracing the world, according to Bernini.