DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0207
THE FOUNTAINS OF ST. PETER’S, AND
PART OF THE COLONNADES.
“ Oswald sentit une emotion tout-a-fait extraordinaire en arrivant en face
de St. Pierre. C’^tait la premiere fois que 1’ouvrage des hommes produisait
sur lui 1’effet d’une merveille de la nature.”
Dr Stael.
The approach to St. Peter’s, like that to our own
cathedral church of St. Paul’s, is very unfavourable to
the architectural effect of the edifice. A long and narrow
street of mean houses leads to an open space of about
two hundred feet square, on passing which the traveller
arrives at the colonnades in front of the church. This
edifice was not contemplated in the original design of the
building ; for at the point which is now the entrance of
the colonnade stood the house of Raphael, designed by
Bramanti, which, with several other buildings, was re-
moved in the year 1660 to afford room for the colonnades.
That structure was designed by Bernini, during the pon-
tificate of Alexander the Sixth, with a taste which has
been often severely criticised. It consists of a semi-
circular colonnade of four rows of pillars, enclosing a
space of seven hundred and twenty-eight feet by six
hundred and six. In number the pillars are two hundred
and fifty-six, and they are surmounted by one hundred
and ninety-two statues of saints. Some idea of the
magnificence of the colonnade may be formed, when we
PART OF THE COLONNADES.
“ Oswald sentit une emotion tout-a-fait extraordinaire en arrivant en face
de St. Pierre. C’^tait la premiere fois que 1’ouvrage des hommes produisait
sur lui 1’effet d’une merveille de la nature.”
Dr Stael.
The approach to St. Peter’s, like that to our own
cathedral church of St. Paul’s, is very unfavourable to
the architectural effect of the edifice. A long and narrow
street of mean houses leads to an open space of about
two hundred feet square, on passing which the traveller
arrives at the colonnades in front of the church. This
edifice was not contemplated in the original design of the
building ; for at the point which is now the entrance of
the colonnade stood the house of Raphael, designed by
Bramanti, which, with several other buildings, was re-
moved in the year 1660 to afford room for the colonnades.
That structure was designed by Bernini, during the pon-
tificate of Alexander the Sixth, with a taste which has
been often severely criticised. It consists of a semi-
circular colonnade of four rows of pillars, enclosing a
space of seven hundred and twenty-eight feet by six
hundred and six. In number the pillars are two hundred
and fifty-six, and they are surmounted by one hundred
and ninety-two statues of saints. Some idea of the
magnificence of the colonnade may be formed, when we