Donde Esta La Biblioteca? Otra Vez

You know you are close to the Vatican museum, home of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, when you see the giant line of ‘pilgrims’ wrapping around about a quarter of the tiny Catholic nation. We passed the time by doing a lot of preparatory reading and a little eavesdropping on the tour groups in line with us. Here’s what we learned for anyone whose religious history is as rusty as mine:

For a long time Christians were tortured, crucified, and used as human torches to light Roman horse races at the site of what is now St. Peter’s square. One day, St. Peter (Jesus’ right hand man) came to Rome to spread some love and the word of his recently deceased best friend. He was targeted for execution, hauled up to Nero’s Circus racecourse, and crucified upside down. His remains were buried in a nearby graveyard and almost forgotten until Christianity was legalized in 313 and Constantine built a church at the site of St. Peter’s martyrdom. The Old St. Peter’s lasted for 1,200 years until the Renaissance when the Church decided it was time for an update. In order to build such a massive, expensive church the Popes sold ‘indulgences’ to wealthy citizens who wanted a V.I.P. pass to Heaven. Sticklers like Martin Luther saw this kind of corruption as sacrilege and split to start the Protestant reformation. Michelangelo drew most of the plans, but they were changed a lot during the 120 years it took to build. What we see now is far from what ‘ol Miche would have wanted. Bernini was hired to do the interior decorating as well as the square in front of the Basilica. The whole complex was meant to let everyone know that the Church is kind of a big deal and they ought to consider giving it a shot.

Eventually we made it into the Vatican museum and did a self-guided tour through all of the past Popes’ lavish home furnishings before walking under the most famous ceiling in the world. When you see the Sistine chapel, it’s easy to understand why it is widely considered the greatest work of art ever created by one man. The subjective idea of beauty might be debatable (though not likely,) but the astonishing craftsmanship is sufficient to earn the title as champion. It’s uncomfortable enough twisting your neck just to look at it, much less to hold out your hand for hours working by candlelight with pain dripping in your eyes.

Once we passed the Sistine and broke free of the millions of fresco-hungry tourists, we cruised around the mountain of marble that is St. Peter’s Basilica. The view from the top of the dome was worth the clostrophobic climb up, and hanging out down amongst Bernini’s colonnades surrounding the square provides plenty of proof that Christianity is kind of a big deal.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 2:10 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.