This year the Vatican will mark the 400th anniversary of the consecration of St Peter’s Basilica.
Consecrated by Pope Urban VIII on November 18, 1626, the basilica was 120 years in the making, with construction beginning in 1506. The 23,000 square metre church replaced the Constantinian basilica, which had become significantly outdated, still had a timber roof and had stood for 1,300 years. Bernini’s baldacchino was completed just in time for the 1626 consecration, with Urban VIII marking the date by introducing the feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of the Apostles Peter and Paul.
This week Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of St Peter’s Basilica, announced various initiatives to celebrate the anniversary, beginning with the inauguration of a new Via Crucis, or Stations of the Cross, in the basilica. The paintings for the stations have been completed by the Swiss painter Manuel Andreas Dürr, who in 2024 won the international competition to execute the works. He also announced that the Dicastery for Communication would introduce a multilingual liturgical platform through which pilgrims can follow liturgies on their smartphones in their chosen language.
Previously inaccessible areas of the basilica will also be opened to the public, including the entire terrace and the Octagonal Halls located inside one of the piers supporting the dome. These spaces house the models of the basilica by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and of Michelangelo’s dome, together with works from the basilica’s museum archive.
Alongside the increased access, there will be weekly “Spiritual Elevations” of prayer and sacred music, as well as pastoral lectures and scriptural reflections on Saint Peter. A pilgrimage enabling pilgrims to retrace the footsteps of St Peter and St Paul in Rome will also be introduced.
Outside the Vatican, a new exhibition in Rome will celebrate the legacy of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pope Urban VIII, Maffeo Barberini, who discovered and promoted the work of the young artist. “Bernini and the Barberini,” taking place at the National Galleries of Ancient Art in the Palazzo Barberini, explores Bernini’s early relationship with his first major patron through sculptures, family portraits and rarely shown paintings. Bernini, who was appointed Architect of St Peter’s in 1629 at the age of 30, was responsible for many of the basilica’s most notable sculptures, including the monument enclosing the Cathedra Petri, the statue of St Longinus and the tombs of Urban VIII and Alexander VII.
The year celebrations will conclude on November 18, with Holy Mass celebrated by Pope Leo on the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul.
