San Pietro in Vincoli

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San Pietro in Vincoli

:For other churches of this dedication, see St Peter ad Vincula (disambiguation). San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) is a basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a ancient Rome public building , usually located in the Forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC....
in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, best known for being the home of Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
's magnificent statue of Moses

Moses (Michelangelo)

The Moses is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti 1513-1515 which depicts the Bible figure Moses.Originally intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II in St....
.

known as the Basilica Eudoxiana, it was first built in 432-440 to house the relic

Relic

A relic is an object or a personal item of Religion significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, shamanism, and many other religions....
of the chains that bound Saint Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter was a leader of the early Christianity church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles....
when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
.

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Encyclopedia

:For other churches of this dedication, see St Peter ad Vincula (disambiguation). San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) is a basilica

Basilica

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, best known for being the home of Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
's magnificent statue of Moses

Moses (Michelangelo)

The Moses is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti 1513-1515 which depicts the Bible figure Moses.Originally intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II in St....
.

History

Also known as the Basilica Eudoxiana, it was first built in 432-440 to house the relic

Relic

Saint Peter

Saint Peter was a leader of the early Christianity church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles....
when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Licinia Eudoxia

Licinia Eudoxia was a Roman Emperors, daughter of Eastern Emperor Theodosius II and wife of the Western Emperors Valentinian III and Petronius Maximus....
(wife of Emperor Valentinian III

Valentinian III

Flavius Placidus Valentinianus , known in English as Valentinian III, was among the last Western Roman Emperors ....
) gifted the chains to Pope Leo I

Pope Leo I

Pope Leo I, or Pope Saint Leo the Great, was pope from 29 September, 440 to 10 November, 461.He was an Italian aristocrat, and is the earliest pope of the Roman Catholic Church to have received the title "the Great"....
, while he compared them to the chains of St. Peter's final imprisonment in the Mamertine Prison

Mamertine Prison

File:AltarinMamertinePrison.jpgThe Mamertine Prison was a prison located in the Forum Romanum in Ancient Rome. It was located on the northeastern slope of the Capitoline Hill, facing the Curia and the imperial fora of Nerva, Vespasian, and Augustus....
in Rome, the two chains miraculously fused together. The chains are kept in a reliquary

Reliquary

A reliquary is a container for relics. These may be the physical remains of saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or other religious figures....
under the main altar in the basilica.

The basilica underwent several restorations and rebuildings, among them a restoration by Pope Adrian I

Pope Adrian I

Pope Adrian, or Hadrian I, was pope from February 9, 772 to December 25, 795. He was the son of Theodore, a Rome nobleman.Soon after his accession, the territory ruled by the popes was invaded by Desiderius, king of the Lombards, and Adrian found it necessary to invoke the aid of the Franks king Charlemagne, who entered Italy with...
, rebuilding by Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. He founded the Sistine Chapel where the team of artists he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance to Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age....
and by Pope Julius II

Pope Julius II

Portico

A portico is a porch that is leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls....
, attributed to Baccio Pontelli

Baccio Pontelli

Baccio Pontelli was an Italy architect. Baccio is an abbreviation of Bartolomeo.Pontelli was born in Florence. Passing the phase of artistic formation with Giuliano da Maiano and Benedetto da Maiano in Florence, and influenced by Francesco di Giorgio Martini during the trip to Urbino , he was an in-layer in Florence and later in Urbino....
, was added in 1475. The cloister

Cloister

A cloister is a covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church usually indicates that it is part of a monastic foundation....
(1493-1503) has been attributed to Giuliano da Sangallo

Giuliano da Sangallo

Giuliano da Sangallo was an Italy sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance.He was born in Florence. His father Francesco Giamberti was a woodworker and architect, much employed by Cosimo de Medici, and his brother Antonio da Sangallo the Elder and nephew Antonio da Sangallo the Younger were architec...
.

The Titulus
Titulus

In Christian archeology, a titulus is one of a set number of churches of Rome#Ancient churches built round the edges of the city of Rome, which were ascribed to patrons, whose names often identified them:...
S. Petri ad vincula is currently vacant. The most recent Cardinal Priest of the basilica was Pío Cardinal Laghi

Pio Cardinal Laghi

Pio Laghi was an Italian people Cardinal of the Catholic Church. His service was primarily in the diplomatic service of the Holy See and the Roman Curia....
, who died January 11, 2009.

Interior

The interior has a nave

Nave

In Romanesque architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and Church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar....
and two aisles, with three apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault . In Romanesque architecture, Byzantine architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral and church architecture, the term is applied to the semi-circular or polygonal section of the sanctuary at the liturgical east end beyond the altar....
s divided by antique Doric

Doric order

The Doric order was one of the Classical order of Architecture of Ancient Greece or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic order and the Corinthian order....
columns. The aisles are surmounted by cross-vaults, while the nave has an 18th century lacunar

Coffer

A coffer in architecture, is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or Vault . A series of these sunken panels were used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also called caissons , or lacunaria , so that a coffered ceiling can be called a lacunar ceiling....
ceiling

Ceiling

A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that bounds the upper limit of a room . It is generally not a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the floor or roof structure above....
, fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins....
ed in the center by Giovanni Battista Parodi, portraying the Miracle of the Chains (1706).

Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
's Moses (completed 1515), while originally intended as part of a massive 47-statue, free-standing funeral monument for Pope Julius II

Pope Julius II

Pope Julius II , nicknamed Il Papa Terribile , was born Giuliano della Rovere. He was Pope from 1503 to 1513. His reign was marked by an aggressive foreign policy, ambitious building projects, and patronage for the arts....
, became the centerpiece of the Pope's funeral monument and tomb in this, his family's church (della Rovere family).

Moses is depicted with horns, as opposed to "the radiance of the Lord", due to the similarity in the Hebrew between the word for "beams of light" and "horns". This kind of iconographic symbolism was common in early sacred art, and in this case was easier for the sculptor (as sculpting concrete horns is easier than sculpting rays of light) and would have been understood by all who saw it as referring to the radiance of Moses' face; they would not have actually thought that he had horns. Other art works include two canvases of Saint Augustine and St. Margret by Guercino, the monument of Cardinal

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior Ecclesiology official, usually a Bishop , of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope....
Girolamo Agucchi designed by Domenichino (also the painter of a sacristy fresco depicting the Liberation of St. Peter (1604). The altarpiece

Altarpiece

An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting....
on the first chapel to the left is a Deposition by Pomarancio

Pomarancio

There are three Italy artists who went by the name of Pomarancio or Il Pomarancio :*Antonio Circignani *Niccol? Circignani *Cristoforo Roncalli ...
. The tomb of Nicolò Cardinal da Cusa (d 1464), with its relief

Relief

A relief is a sculptured artwork where a modelled form is raised, or in sunken-relief lowered, from a flatish background plane without being disconnected from it....
, Cardinal Nicholas before St Peter, is by Andrea Bregno

Andrea Bregno

Andrea di Cristoforo Bregno was a Lombardy sculptor and architect of the Early Renaissance who worked in Rome from the 1460s and died just as the High Renaissance was getting under way....
. Painter and sculptor Antonio Pollaiuolo

Antonio Pollaiuolo

Antonio del Pollaiolo , also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiolo, was an Italian people Painting, sculpture, engraver and goldsmith during the Renaissance....
is buried here. Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, is also buried in the Church, as well as Cardinal Cinzo Aldobrandini, whose tomb is decorated with imagery of the Grim Reaper.

San Pietro in Vincoli

History

Interior

External links