San Pietro In Vincoli In Rome, Italy Stock Image

Chapel with the tomb of Pope Julius II in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli Saint Peter in Chains on the Oppian Hill near the Colosseum in Rome, Italy. The church is best known for housing the imposing marble statue of Moses, carved by the Italian High Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1515. The magnificent sculpture of the biblical figure was commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II for his tomb and was initially intended to be one of more than 40 statues as part of a three-level tomb in St Peter`s Basilica. Work on the grandiose tomb was stalled however, partly due to Michelangelo`s undertaking of the Sistine Chapel, and the project`s scale was gradually reduced to a wall tomb, housed in its current location.