CITY OF TIE VATICAN Home of Art Treasures

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 590, 16 February 1929, Page 18

CITY OF TIE VATICAN Home of Art Treasures

(Written for THE SI V by

P. L. SOLJAK.

■HE eyes of the world! have of late centred j upon Rome and the j Vatican, age-old centre' of Christendom and treif- ! sury of literature and art. By terms of the recent treaty, signed by the Government and the Vatican delegates at the Lateran Palace, a new Papal State has been created. with the Pontiff in recognised possession of the Vatican palace and gardens, the Lateran Basilica, the Basilica of St. Peter, and all the ecclesiastical residences in Rome possessed by the Papal States up to IS7O. The Vatican, largest palace in the world, and official residence of the Popes, stands upon the Vatican Hill, immediately to the north of St. Peter's. An immense pile of more than 4,000 halls, chambers, and galleries, besides courts and gardens, it contains a celebrated library of 100,000 volumes, with 23,000 manuscripts, in almost every language, and

a rich collection of ancient and modern art. The walls of the Sistine Chapel, built in 1473, are covered with magnificent frescoes by the great Florentine masters, while Michel Angelo painted the ceiling and the “Last Judgment” on the end wall. The world-famous Vatican library, with its priceless M.SS., its collections of early printed books, of Christian antiquities, and jewellery, is housed in several large halls. There are, in addition, vast sculpture galleries, museums, and a picture, gallery, while the Lateran Palace, which is also papal, contains important collections of sculpture and inscriptions. The new State will also include the Quirinal, now the residence of die King of Italy, but formerly a papal palace, in which conclaves were held for the election of the Popes. St. Peter’s, the greatest architectural work of man, stands near the former site of the great gardens of Agrippina, where the Emperor Nero had Christians burned and tortured after his destruction of Rome by fire. The present Basilica is the third that has been erected, succeeding in turn the first-century oratory of Pope Anacletus, and the magnificent temple built early in the fourth century by Constantine, in the form of a Latin cross. The latter was demolished 1n the seventeenth century, and the building took its present shape under

Maderna. though the consecration .ns not take place till November is>? The Basilica had taken over SOO r».t to build, and cost, about fio.ooo'oftw The visitor to St. Peter's is' si; struck by the great piazza or square that fronts the whole building Her could be drawn up 200.000 horse in 'i foot with cannon The obelisk, the huge touutaius. and the sweeping colonnade, make a fittheforeground to the mighty edifice Th obelisk, a granite pillar 132 feet in height, stands in the centre of ;h e piazza, and was brought to Rome bv the Emperor Caligula from Heliopyt, in Egypt. On each side of it stands a triple-tiered fountain designed bv Maderna. The surrounding colonnade consists of 2Si columns and ns pilasters, surmounted by a fiOleet balustrade, upon which are jg-i statues, each 11 feet in height. The facade of the Basilica is entirely in travertine, its great cornice being unheld by eight Corinthian columns From the central balcony above, the

new Pope is proclaimed, and from here on great occasions he formerly gave his blessing, amidst the pealing of bells from 300 churches, and the booming of cannon from the Castle of St. Angelo. On entering the cathedral, the visitor’s first feeling may be one of disappointment, for it is only by degrees that the vastness of the edifice may be realised. Here is an enormous building, covering an area of about six acres, and capable of accommodating 80,000 people. Tiers of marble pillars arise, from which span great arches that lift their massive forms toward a gorgeously painted ana decorated roof 133 feet above. The nave is 613 feet long, and 81 feet wide. The transept is 449 feet. long, while the dome caches a height ot 448 feet above the pavement. To right and left, magnificent altars with wonderful mosaics glow with splendour. The floor is marble, the walls and statuary are marble, and in the distance is the tomb of St. Peter, over-arched by a dome as great in size as the Roman Pantheon. The crypt is of agate, jasper, and porphyry, and is surrounded by a marble balustrade lit by 93 bronze lamps. Within a sealed vault lies the tomb of St. Peter, surmounted by Constantine’s golden cross, weigh ing 1501 b. The balustrades lead round to the papal altar. Four massive pil*

lars of twisted bronze support a lavishly wrought canopy, culminating in a cross. Above rears the mighty dome, a building in itself, yet apparently so light and graceful that one would think it had been placed by delicate hands upon the crest of the Basilica. An idea of its magnitude may be gauged from the fact that it took 600 men, working night and day, two years to complete it, and that the ball which surmounts its topmost point is in reality a spherical chamber capable of holding 16 persons. The interior of the dome sparkles with mosaics, and at the base of the mighty supporting pillars are marble statues, apparently life-size, hut really 20 feet in height. It is one of the most striking features of St. Peter’s that everything is so well proportioned —its colossal columns, monuments and statues, its altars canopies, and dome —that nothing intrudes itself upon the visitor by its vastness. All is greatness combined with harmony. Within one of its 27 chapels rests the chair of St. Peter; in another hangs the famous Sixth Dolour” of Michel Angelo; while other great oil paintings are repro* duced in imperishable mosaics. The richness of ornamentation, combined with the wonder of architecture, combine to make St. Peter[s an edifice “unparalleled in beauty, in magnitude and magnificence, and one of the noblest and most wonderful of the works of man.”