1 Earliest Rome

4.15 The architecture of Christianity
1. Incorporating the earlier shrine of Sr Perer and his (supposed) tomb, venerated on this
site since the second century (Vol. 1, 376-7; 12.7f(iii)). Although most of the tombs in
the old Vatican cemetery were levelled or filled in to provide a firm platform for the new
church, the top of Peter's shrine was left visible and newly decorated. Above it the shrine
was marked out by a balustrade and covered with a canopy supported by four distinctive
spiral columns (the inspiration for Bernini's great 'baldacchino', which stands on this
site in New St Peter's). See Ward-Perkins (1952) and the representation of the shrine on
a fourth-century ivory casket (Ward-Perkins (1952) plate 1).
2. An unusual feature in a basilica church of this date (where the aisles of the nave normally
carried right through to the apse-end). Here it was probably intended to provide more
ample space for the faithful around the shrine.
3. Used itself as a burial place in the fourth century. The original altar (probably portable)
may have stood at the end of the nave, in front of the shrine. This was the original loca­
tion of the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (Vol. 1, fig. 8.2).
4. In use by the end of the fourth century, but not finally completed until the early sixth
century.
5. Left intact when the basilica was constructed; later (like the fifth-century tomb of
Honorius next to it) converted into a chapel. Finally used as a sacristy, it was incorpo­
rated into New St Peter's and only demolished in 1777.
6. Surviving from the adornment of the first-century A.n. circus that stood on this spot; in
1586, moved to the piazza in front of St Peter's (where it still stands).
4.15d Fifteenth-century view of the interior of Old St Peter's
In a series of illustrations of important events in French history, the fifteenthcentury
artist Jean Fouquet painted the scene of the crowning of the emperor
Charlemagne (A.D. 800) in Old St Peter's. Although the figures are drawn from
the artist's imagination, the representation of the interior of the church is probably
fairly accurate. Fouquet had almost certainly visited St Peters between 1443
and 1447, and it had then little changed since the period of its foundation.
See further: Krautheimer, Corbett, Frazer (1977) 222-3.
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