Saturday, January 20
One of the first things we did when we got to Rome was to tour the Catacombs of St Sebastian. There we met another couple who mentioned that they were going on a tour of the tomb of St Peter. We found this interesting; it was something that we never knew existed. We discovered that there was such a tour and that it could only be booked directly with the Vatican. We applied and got a date of January 20 at 9:30 am. Today was the day we were going to meet St Peter in person.
The entrance to the tour is inside Vatican City in an area that is normally off limits to tourists. Just being there was a thrill and was worth the price of admission. In typical fashion the Basilica was built on top of the grave of St Peter and so our tour would take us underground.
Our guide was an archeologist who was obviously very familiar with the site. She started off by showing us some models of the church that Constantine had built on the site (known now as Old St Peter’s) showing how St Peter’s sarcophagus had been on display near the main alter. Soon we learned that a large part of Vatican Hill had been covered by a Pagan necropolis (city of the dead or cemetery) that, over the years, became a Christian burial site.
We entered the excavations through the same door that had been the entrance to the ancient Necropolis. No photography of any kind was permitted. The structures were incredibly well preserved. This is probably because they had been covered by a church since the fourth century. When built, the necropolis would have been at street level but now it was 10-20 meters below ground. The facade was in incredible condition and was easily the best example we’d seen to date. Many of the burial chambers had intact decorations and frescos.
Eventually we moved to a spot that was directly underneath the main dome of the basilica where we found the tomb of St Peter. We were only permitted to see the grave from a distance but we could see the plexiglass box said to contain his bones. Nearby we saw the remnants of the alter from the church of Constantine’s time. When the present day St Peter’s Basilica was built the older church was completely destroyed and only a few remnants were kept. Bernini used some surviving columns and incorporated them into the design of the ‘balconies’ above and to the side of the main alter.
(Columns from Old St Peter’s)
When the tour ended we were below the church in the grottos where many Popes had been interred. From there we made our way into the Basilica in search of some Canova sculptures that were on our list. He had carved a gigantic funeral monument to Pope Clement XIV and a Monument to the Stuarts of Great Briton. We were pretty sure we had seen the funeral monument but couldn’t remember seeing the one to the Stuarts.
(The bottom half of Canova’s Monument to the Stuarts. These angels are magnificent examples of his style.)
On the way home we visited Chiesa di San Giuseppe (because we could) and San Giacomo alla Lungara, which contained a Bernini sculpture from our list.
Distance walked: 6.8 miles and 2 flights
Sunday, January 21
We planned a quiet day. We went out for groceries but made a small detour to see Bernini’s Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, which is housed in Chiesa San Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere.
(Blessed Ludovica Albertoni by Bernini)
Distance walked: 3 miles and 1 flight
Total churches visited so far: 106 and one Synagogue