St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square

Piazza San Pietro
St. Peter's Square Piazza San Pietro
City square
	St. Peter's Square
Design	Gianlorenzo Bernini
Location	Vatican City
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	Coordinates: 41°54′08″N 12°27′26″E / 41.9022°N 12.4572°E

Saint Peter's Square (Latin: Forum Sancti Petri, Italian: Piazza San Pietro [ˈpjattsa sam ˈpjɛːtro]) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave in Rome, directly west of the neighborhood (rione) of Borgo. Both the square and the basilica are named after Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus whom Catholics consider to be the first Pope.

At the centre of the square is the Vatican obelisk, an ancient Egyptian obelisk erected at the current site in 1586. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later, including the massive Doric colonnades,^[1]^[2] four columns deep, which embrace visitors in "the maternal arms of Mother Church". A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613.

^ William Tronzo, ed., St. Peter's in the Vatican, Cambridge University Press, 2005, page 149.
^ Franco Mormondo, Bernini: His Life and His Rome, University of Chicago Press, 2011, page 203.

[1] William Tronzo, ed., St. Peter's in the Vatican, Cambridge University Press, 2005, page 149.

[2] Franco Mormondo, Bernini: His Life and His Rome, University of Chicago Press, 2011, page 203.

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