Exterior
The site is on a ridge overlooking the Tiber valley, and sloping down to the main area of the EUR on the other side. It is in the north-west corner of the EUR, and is not very conveniently situated; the intention of the planners was that the building should be visible from afar and that it certainly is. The monumental approach from the east side, up a slope,
The surrounding is spectacular and is improved by planted trees. The edifice is a cube in brown brick with stone trim, and with four gigantic pylons attached to each face forming the Greek cross. These pylons are banded with six horizontal stone string courses. The hemispherical dome is covered in hexagonal tiles and sits on a drum having six rectangular recesses containing porthole windows. The lantern is a cylinder with fourteen rectangular slits, capped with a conical finial crowned by a statue of Our Lady. The entrance is in the eastern pylon, and in the enormous rectangular recess above the doors is a relief of the resurrected Christ with the apostles. Immediately above the door is the Confession of Peter in Latin, and above the recess is a dedicatory inscription.
Read more about this topic: Ss. Pietro E Paolo A Via Ostiense
Famous quotes containing the word exterior:
“Had I been less resolved to work, I would perhaps had made an effort to begin immediately. But since my resolution was formal and before twenty four hours, in the empty slots of the next day where everything fit so nicely because I was not yet there, it was better not to choose a night at which I was not well-disposed for a debut to which the following days proved, alas, no more propitious.... Unfortunately, the following day was not the exterior and vast day which I had feverishly awaited.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The exterior must be joined to the interior to obtain anything from God, that is to say, we must kneel, pray with the lips, and so on, in order that proud man, who would not submit himself to God, may be now subject to the creature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“The competent leader of men cares little for the niceties of other peoples’ characters: he cares much—everything—for the exterior uses to which they may be put.... These are men to be moved. How should he move them? He supplies the power; others simply the materials on which that power operates.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)