Tombs
Since the crucifixion and burial of Saint Peter in 64 A.D., the spot was thought to be the location of the tomb of Saint Peter, where there stood a small shrine. With its increasing prestige the church became richly decorated with statues, furnishings and elaborate chandeliers, and side tombs and altars were continuously added.
The structure was absolutely filled with tombs and bodies of saints and popes. Bones continued to be found in construction as late as February 1544.
The majority of these tombs were destroyed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries demolition of Old St. Peter's Basilica (save one which was destroyed during the Saracen Sack of Rome in 846). The remainder were translated in part to modern St. Peter's Basilica, which stands on the site of the original basilica, and a handful of other churches of Rome.
Along with the repeated translations from the ancient Catacombs of Rome and two fourteenth century fires in Basilica of St. John Lateran, the rebuilding of St. Peter's is responsible for the destruction of approximately half of all papal tombs. As a result, Donato Bramante, the chief architect of modern St. Peter's Basilica, has been remembered as "il Ruinate".
Read more about this topic: Old St. Peter's Basilica
Famous quotes containing the word tombs:
““Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the d’Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
The End”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
““All that glistens is not gold,
Often have you heard that told;
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms infold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgment old,
Your answer had not been inscrolled.
Fare you well, your suit is cold.””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“How old the world is! I walk between two eternities.... What is my fleeting existence in comparison with that decaying rock, that valley digging its channel ever deeper, that forest that is tottering and those great masses above my head about to fall? I see the marble of tombs crumbling into dust; and yet I don’t want to die!”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)