St. Peters In Rome--The Mosaic Pinnacle of the Universe

For anyone who has not done so, either immediately buy a ticket to Italy and go directly to Rome and do not leave there until you have seen St. Peters. OR, start saving money and do not stop until you have enuf to go. St. Peters Cathedral is, without a doubt, the greatest man-made structure on the planet--and I am not Roman Catholic, so don't even think for a minute that my saying this has anything to do with my being hyptomtized by church traditions, etc...

This is the foyer into St. Peters Basicila. This picture gives you some idea of the scale of this building.

At the end from which I am taking the photo, there was a view of a wonderful mosaic behind a statue of a man on a horse. The closed gate prevented me from getting any closer. I tried to go outside and around, but it was guarded and not accessible. If you click on the larger image, you can get some idea of the 3-D effect of the mosaics behind the statue.

There are many small altars (by St. Peters standards) in alcove chapels on the sides in the Basilica. They are incredibly beautiful. I have taken some full length photos and a few detail shots.





































The scale and magnificance of St. Peters is TOTALLY OFF THE SCALE.........it is the only building that has ever brought tears to my eyes, just by it's being there, as it is. MIND BOGGLING......

Some of the photos I will put here are just there to give you a sense of the scale.

AND I truely do not believe that many people have any idea that all those 'paintings' that they see from w-a-y down there on the floor are really, totally mosaics.........even I, who had been there once before about 5 yrs ago, had no idea. Considering the scale, it seems impossible.

BUT....Sara O'Dell and I spent a whole day climbing the stairs , thru the most narrow of passage-ways, up, up, up, thru tiny spiral towers, round and round the cavity between dome and the outside roofing materials to the tip-top cupola on the top of the cathedral and can tell you, and show you by these photos, that these highly details illustrations that cover the entire dome are mosaics made of hundreds of thousands, and probably millions of smalti. From up there in the dome, the people on the floor look like ants. They are not aware of the presence of any people up there when they look up. It is THAT BIG !!

I have done searches and image searches on the web, and have not found any decent photos of the Dome mosaics in St. Peters, which is even more remarkable, considering that they are probably the most impressive mosaics that I have ever seen --and yes I have been to Ravenna and churches in the Po River Delta.

Click to see a bigger image. Here is a link to photos of St. Peter's Organ--it shows some of the interior. Keep in mind that this is an organ that usually FILLS one wall of a typical big church .





Notice the people standing behind the safety screening right above the solid gold band above the lettering. My stomach did flips when I looked down or even up for that matter...it was UNREAL !!