Reading Response 8

 St. Peter's Basilica

The St. Peter's Basilica is located in Rome.  The real name of it is The Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano.  It has a very large dome like structure at the top with two smaller ones on each side of the largest one.  It is the combined effort of numerous architects because of the reign of a few different popes.  

~ started being built in 326 CE 

~ built over the tomb of St. Peter under Constantine The Great

~ first pope to reign was Pope Julius II

~ first architect worked from 1444-1514

~ first stone was laid in 1506 by the pope

~ half a century was spent reducing the scale of the building

~ work on the new model began in 1535

~ Pope Paul III was the second to reign

~ he assigned Michelangelo to be the architect in charge

~ although working with the initial structure, some walls were tore down

~ Michelangelo died in 1564

~ the rest was done by many architects working at different times 

~ the design became simpler

~ building is to be viewed from the bottom upward

~ appears as a undulating cliff surface moving both toward and away from the center

~ dome was raised onto a higher drum to be seen from the piazza in front of the building

~ has five entrances

~ three have lintels and two are round headed