St. Peter's Basilica

 　　Peter's Basilica is located in the Vatican and is the largest cathedral in the world. The Vatican is located on the Vatican Heights in the northwest corner of Rome, the capital of Italy. It is bordered by Italy on all sides and is a "country of China". Its territory includes St. Peter's Square, St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Palace, and the Vatican Museums. It is the smallest sovereign state in the world and the least populated in the world. The territory of the country is roughly a star triangle. Except for St. Peter's Square in the southeast of the city, the border is marked by the ancient city wall of the Vatican.

　　St. Peter's Basilica originated from people's commemoration of Peter, and its history is almost synchronized with the development of Christianity.

　　Peter is a great saint of Jesus, he was the first person to recognize Jesus as the Christ (i.e. "Savior"), so Jesus gave him the name "Peter" (meaning "Rock"). Legend has it that after the death of Jesus, Peter, as the head of the saints, began to found the Christian church. In the middle of the 1st century AD, when Christianity gradually spread from Palestine to Rome, it caused great panic among the Roman rulers. In order to consolidate the regime, Emperor Nero began to suppress Christian missionaries from 64 AD. Peter, as the founder of the church, naturally Not spared, he was crucified by Emperor Nero. The execution was carried out on the site of the present church, and the remains were buried there. However, to the surprise of the Roman rulers, the power of faith is infinite, and the Christian teachings have been accepted by more and more people. Believers and missionaries are not only killed, but their influence is growing. By the time of Emperor Constantine, the power of Christianity had become too great to be destroyed. Emperor Constantine had to declare and recognize the legal status of Christianity, and in 324 built a simple chapel in Peter's cemetery. In honor of Peter. After Constantine's son Cons succeeded to the throne, in order to use the power of Christianity to serve the empire, he established Christianity as the state religion of the empire. In order to express his reverence for God, Kongsi carried out a large-scale construction project, tore down the original simple St. Peter's Church, and built a cathedral several times the original size. In the more than ten centuries since, St. Peter's Basilica has undergone many expansions and reconstructions.

　　The church was originally called the Old St. Peter's Basilica, which was completed in 326 AD and is a Baroque building. In the 16th century, Pope Giulio II decided to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica, and ground was broken in 1506. During the 120-year reconstruction process, the best Italian architects Bramante, Michelangelo, Della Porta and Carlo Martell successively presided over the design and construction until November 1626 It was officially announced on the 18th, called the New St. Peter's Basilica, with a total area of ​​23,000 square meters. The main building is 45.4 meters high and 211 meters long. It can accommodate up to nearly 60,000 people praying at the same time. After the completion of the main work of St. Peter's Basilica, the talented architectural genius Bernini spent more than two decades decorating the interior and exterior. Bernini was the main promoter of the Baroque art style, and the decoration project he presided over naturally added a strong Baroque art color to the church, making it more luxurious and magnificent.

　　It can be seen from this that St. Peter's Basilica has experienced a total of more than 1,300 years of history from its construction to its many expansions and reconstructions, to its final decoration. This process is exactly the process of the development and growth of Christianity in the Roman Empire. In a sense, the architectural history of St. Peter's Church is also a part of the history of Christianity.

　　St. Peter's Basilica is a rectangular church. The whole building presents the structure of a Greek cross. The shape is traditional and sacred. It is a splendid baroque religious and artistic temple. It is irreplaceable, not only because of the countless artistic treasures displayed in the world's largest Catholic church, but also because in its century-long construction history, almost all important architects and artists of the Renaissance participated in the Design and decoration of churches. Raphael, Michelangelo and Bernini are three of the most famous.