And, in , a set of bones were found. Testing revealed they belonged to a man in his 60s, the same age that Peter would have been. Earth was encrusted on the bones, and Peter originally was buried directly in the dirt. And the bones had remnants of purple thread, a color of cloth that only would have been used in ancient times to wrap the body of someone who was seen as royal or holy.
For these reasons, Italian archaeologist Margherita Guarducci, among others, argued that the bones belonged to St. Peter, either. Wow, this is fascinating! Very fascinating! The mythical Peter never existed, so obviously was never buried either.
What was found beneath the Basilica in was a pagan cemetery. Therefore, Saint Peter really lived and died on the cross, just like Jesus Christ. Interesting tid bit I learned that the Basilica is 1 meter longer than the longest dimension of the Coliseum — as a one up on the pagans. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
His sculptural approach to architecture departed from classical traditions, paving the road to mannerism and the baroque. In , at age 71, Michelangelo received the greatest and final commission of his life. AD : Your book focuses on his final decades, initially describing them as a period of despair. Can you describe where Michelangelo was in his life then?
WW : At 71 years old, he felt like his life was over. He had finished the tomb of Julius II, a commission that had taken him 40 years, and was ready to move back to Florence, retire, and die.
He claims he's not an architect, but of course he is—he's really trying to avoid taking over this utter disaster of a building. At the moment the St. Peter's Basilica is a building that measures meters of length and meters of height including its dome.
It has an area of 23, square meters. This basilica has been considered as an architectural work of great importance by the magnitude of its facade and by the quality of its work, annually receives people of diverse countries of the world who come to its interior to admire the best sculptures of the times and appreciate a work that has had centuries of construction.
Did you know that a million cubic meters of soil had to be removed to complete the excavation necessary for the construction of St. Peter's Basilica? The construction of the present St. Peter's Basilica was commissioned by Pope Julius II , but before that, there was another basilica built by Constantine in At that time the newly converted emperor put an end to the persecution of the Christians and ordered the construction of a basilica that would bear the name of the first pope.
The ideal place for this construction was the great circus of Nero but Constantine ordered that the basilica was constructed in the place where Saint Peter had been buried.
This work is worth to be seen closely to be able to appreciate the genius of this artist with his young age. In The Pity suffered attacks and since then is protected by a crystal. Did you know that Michelangelo was the one who designed the current uniforms of the Swiss Guard that protects the St.
These materials included bricks and breccia, a form of crushed tufa that was cheap and plentiful. He was casting the vaults and the shafts of the giant columns and using travertine for only the bases, capitals, and cornices Scotti Marble The interior of the Basilica is decorated with many milk-white marble decorations and sculptures. Marble sculpture by Michelangelo that dates On the inside of the Basilica there are many marble columns of varying types of marble.
They are each 12 meters high. The side isles of the Basilica are decorated with 44 of these marble columns Sperandio, Zander, and Zappa A prime example of this is when the colosseum became an informal quarry during the Middle Ages. For the construction of the St. In addition to this, broken arches and columns from the Palatine were recycled in the new church.
Other secondhand materials that were used were marble columns pilfered from public buildings and temples of pagan Rome Hauser By the 18th century, severe cracking appeared at the base of the Basilica dome despite the original tension hoops placed in the dome, and minimal cracking occurred in the upper shells where the lantern is laid down Marconi 5.
Originally, Della Porta added three iron hoops to the internal shell of the dome between and Two of these rings were placed in the solid mass of bricks where the curve begins, and the third was placed midway to the apex of the dome. The two larger hoops weigh more than 18, pounds, while the smaller ones weigh more than 16, pounds Scotti Historically, masonry domes are built in the form of hoops without centering and remain stable mainly due to compression in hoop and meridional directions.
The lower portion of the dome, during and after construction, has the tendency to bulge out which imparts hoop tension. Masonry, when constructed in shell form, is a unique combination of durability and spanning capacity Varma, Jangid, and Achwal 7. However, even with the three tension hoops in place, cracking still progressed, which is what led to the addition of five iron hoops in the 18th century. A sixth hoop was added in when Vanvitelli realized that one of the sixteenth-century hoops had broken up.
The addition of these six hoops ensured the structural strength and rigidity of the dome. This helped prevent further cracking and deformations Marconi 5. Travertine is known to be a very durable material, composed almost exclusively of precipitated calcium carbonate. Defective layers of the travertine, such as spongy material, trapped soil, and large holes, are frequently present in the sediment, but these are normally discarded in quality construction.
High quality travertine possesses great mechanical strength and a remarkable resistance to environmental attack. As a result, one might conclude that the conservation of travertine should not pose great problems; however, travertine requires serious attention because a lot of iron was used in their construction Torraca Metal elements are necessary in travertine construction because stones are unreliable when subject to tensile or flexural stresses.
However, when this metal corrodes, not only does the metal weaken, but it also increases in volume. Due to the expansion of the metal inside of these blocks, a great amount of stress may result, causing massive blocks of stone to be shattered.
To solve this issue, inspection and maintenance by sealing all ways of water penetration that could cause metal corrosion, filling cracks and other voids, and repairing old fillings with lime paste and crushed travertine is necessary Torraca Additionally, Lime-based materials, such as travertine, are attacked by pollutants brought to the stone surface by air in gaseous or aerosol form or water acidic rain.
This results in corrosion of the stone. Plants and bushes also threaten the state of travertine. When seeds are blown into crevasses by the wind, these seeds grow into plants and bushes that create stress and cracks.
Therefore, careful maintenance of the travertine is important Torraca The new Basilica shifted somewhat to the West in comparison to the old Basilica. This meant that the new Basilica was positioned farther from the Tiber River in comparison to the old Basilica, and it was therefore built on slightly better soil Macchi The weak foundation of the old Basilica was a major issue that led to stability problems, and although the position of the new Basilica was slightly different, this Basilica would soon face problems as a result of a poor foundation as well.
The foundation of the new Basilica begins with the foundation of the old Basilica due to the fact that the Basilica was built at the same site. Constantine made the decision to erect the Basilica not only on top of an existing cemetery, but also on top of Vatican Hill , which has a steep slope Hauser He chose to do so because he believed the remains of Saint Peter to be buried there, and as a result he was wanted to build the basilica at that location no matter how difficult the task proved to be.
In order to build the church on top of the cemetery, Constantine destroyed the cemetery, which was in active use. Constantine transferred approximately 1,,, cubic feet of hard blue clay from the upper part of hillside, to the lower part, in order to carve a level platform upon which the basilica could be built.
The tombs that were left somewhat intact were the ones located under the western half of the old Basilica, where the hill slopes steeply to the South. Constantine left the roofs of these tombs intact, and just filled the interiors with rubble in order to make a firm foundation E.
Additionally, the area around the Vatican was pervaded by swamplands and the surrounding terrain was yielding and unstable Torraca Following this, when the construction of the southern tower began in , a foundation by pits and piles was adopted.
However, the size of the cracks only increased when Bernini attempted to superimpose the tower in As a result, the tower had to be torn down. At the widest point, the cracks were 22 cm wide Macchi Currently, the cracks are still present, and Figures 15 shows the location of these cracks. Additionally, the present differential settlement is 40 centimeters Macchi Vertical crack in the facade attic Sperandio, Zander, and Zappa These cracks were previously described by architects Domenico Costa and Giovanni Antinori in To repair the statues, iron bands and special iron ties were used; however, now those iron parts show serious signs of deterioration.
The iron has thinned as a result of deposits of rust, and they are no longer capable of providing support for the statues. Additionally, the ties are coming loose and the decorative elements of the statues are showing visible signs of decay Sperandio, Zander, and Zappa Figures 17 and 18 show the positions of the statues on the facade.
The pictures above show the 13 statues that are lined across the top of the facade. Prior to entering the Basilica, one must walk through St. The square is surrounded by colonnades and statues that lead up to the Basilica itself, whose facade is decorated with elaborate columns and statues.
0コメント