St. Peter's Basilica - Vatican City State
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The Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply St. Peter's Basilica, is an Italian Renaissance church in Vatican City, the papal enclave within the city of Rome.
Waymark Code: WM10ME9
Location: Vatican City State
Date Posted: 05/27/2019
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In the towers to either side of the facade are two clocks. The clock on the left has been operated electrically since 1931. Its oldest bell dates from 1288.
The Great Bell (il Campanone) of St. Peter's Basilica, is the largest of the six bells on the left side of the façade of the church below the clock.
What makes this bell so important is that it is rung only on special occasions. You will hear it on Easter Sunday and Christmas day, as well as on June 29, the feast day of Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Rome. It will peal steadily, slowly and sadly to announce the death of a pope. It rang to salute Pope Benedict XVI as he left the Vatican for Castelgandolfo after his surprise resignation.
But perhaps the most exciting and joyful occasion when the Campanone resounds in all its majesty is at the election of a new pope. When the smoke rises from the famous chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, it takes a minute or two before one can see from the piazza whether it is white or black; it appears to be grey before settling in to an unmistakable white or black. But in that twilight minute or two of uncertainty, if the Campanone begins to peal you know that a new pope has been elected. The strokes of the Great Bell are then joined by the joyful sounds of the other five so that it is practically a symphony of bells.
The Campanone can boast a history of more than 230 years as it was fused by Luigi Valadier shortly before his death in 1785.
Until 1931 the bells of the basilica were rung by hand, but ever since that year they have been operated electronically. The Campanone is not the oldest of the six; that honor belongs to one of the smaller ones which dates to 1238. The "baby" of the group was fused in 1932. The six bells together weigh 15 tons, the Campanone alone accounting for nine of those tons.
The Campanone has a circumference of over seven meters and is almost four meters tall.
Bernini's Towers
Pope Urban VIII had long been a critic of Bernini's predecessor, Carlo Maderno. His disapproval of the architect's work stemmed largely from the Maderno's design for the longitudinal nave of St. Peters, which was widely condemned for obscuring Michelangelo's dome. When the Pope gave the commission to Bernini he therefore requested that a new design for the facade's bell towers to be submitted for consideration. Baldinucci describes Bernini's tower as consisting of "two orders of columns and pilasters, the first order being Corinthian" and "a third or attic story formed of pilasters and two columns on either side of the open archway in the center".
Urban desired the towers to be completed by a very specific date: 29 June 1641, the feast day dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. To this end an order was issued which stated that "all work should take a second seat to that of the campanile." The south tower was completed on time even in spite of these issues, but records show that in the wake of the unveiling the Pope was not content with what he saw and he ordered the top level of Bernini's tower removed so that the structure could be made even grander. The tower continued to grow, and as the construction began to settle the first cracks started to appear followed by Urban's infamous public admonishment of his architect.
In 1642 all work on both towers came to a halt. Bernini had to pay the cost for the demolition; eventually the idea of completing the bell towers was abandoned.
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