St. Peter`s Square In Rome, The Bernini`s Columns And The Fountain Stock Image

‎The heart of world Christianity, ‎‎St. Peter`s Square‎‎ owes its characteristic elliptical shape to the imposing colonnade by ‎‎Gian Lorenzo Bernini‎‎ which, commissioned by Pope ‎‎Alexander VII Chigi‎‎, consists of‎‎ 284 columns‎‎ arranged radially in four rows.‎n‎Eleven years of work 1656-1667, more than 40 thousand cubic meters of travertine transported from Tivoli by land or pulled by horses along the banks of the river: with its colonnaded arcades, the ‎‎most famous square in the world‎‎ symbolizes the universal embrace of the Church, to the faithful but also to ‎‎the `heretics and the Infidels to enlighten them to the true faith`.‎‎ In designing the colonnade, ‎‎Gian Lorenzo Bernini‎‎ played with ‎‎optical illusions‎‎, obtaining a ‎‎scenographic and spectacular result‎‎. Those who cross the square see the columns gather and distance themselves, with a feeling of movement and alternation between full and empty spaces. Looking at the colonnade from the center of the square, at the point indicated by one of the two marble discs on the pavement that mark the fires of the ellipse, it seems to us composed ‎‎of a single row of columns‎‎: the outer ones disappear behind those of the inner row.