Sunbury American And Shamokin Journal

From the Reading Gazette.
JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN EUROPE.
August, 1841.

ROME—St. Peter's.—I rose at an early hour and proceeded to the Ponte San Angelo by appointment, to meet my obliging friend Mr. Mancinelli, who promised to accompany me to the ball of St. Peter's. This brings to my mind the promise I made you to give you some account of this mighty edifice before leaving Rome. But how shall I make you comprehend its vastness, its stupendousness, the sumptuousness of an object that is unique, that is itself the standard of all comparison? Perhaps by comparing its dimensions with objects within your knowledge.

But we will stop a moment to examine the grand piazza, at the end of which St. Peter's is placed. This is a magnificent open space, beautifully paved, over a thousand feet in length by five hundred wide, enclosed on two sides by the bold and graceful sweep of the splendid semi-circular covered colonnade constructed by Bernini, under Pope Alexander VII. This colonnade is composed of 284 immense columns of travertine, and 64 pilasters, forming three passages, the middle one being wide enough to admit two carriages abreast. Its width is 56 feet and its height 55. The balustrade on its top is ornamented with 92 colossal statues. In the centre of this piazza stands the Egyptian obelisk, measuring 126 feet in height, including the pedestal and cross, which was brought from Heliopolis by Caligula and erected in the Circus of Nero. On either side of this is a magnificent fountain whose pyramids of sparkling waters descend into basins of oriental granite, 50 feet in circumference and hewn out of single blocks. The highest jet is said to rise 64 feet. On a gentle elevation at the extreme end of this splendid piazza, approached by a magnificent flight of steps, stands the stupendous metropolitan temple of the Catholic world. The width of the church is 500 feet, nearly equal to the width of one of our squares, and its height is 150 feet, or higher than the Court House steeple. Its facade is formed of a double row of stupendous columns of travertine, measuring 8 feet in diameter and 90 feet in height, supporting an immense entablature which is surmounted by statues of Christ and the twelve apostles, of colossal size. The vestibule measures 439 feet in length, 37 in width, and 62 in height. At one end is the equestrian statue of Constantine, and at the other that of Charlemagne. Its vaulted ceiling is splendidly painted and gilt. The great central door of bronze must measure 40 by 30 feet, being at least equal to the whole front of one of our two-storied houses.

The length of the great nave or main body of the church is 614 feet, or 126 feet longer than our longest squares, its width is 82 and its height 145 feet, so that it would contain 15 of our Court-houses, (calculating the height at 50 feet) three piled upon each other, and five set end to end, and would then leave a passage all around sufficient width to let a carriage pass.

This, please to recollect is the great middle aisle of the church only, or the long part of the Latin cross. The short part of the cross measures 500 feet in length and is of the same height with the long part, and would contain twelve more buildings of the dimensions of the Court house, making in all 27!! Then you have the side-aisles and chapels unoccupied. The dimensions of the cupola are vast beyond conception. On some remarks being made in presence of Michael Angelo in regard to the size and beauty of the dome of the Pantheon, he replied that "he would make as fine a dome as that and suspend it in the air." He has kept his word literally in the construction of the dome of St. Peter's. This gigantic dome rests upon four enormous pillars placed at the four angles where the two parts of the cross intersect, and are joined to each other by sublime arches. These colossal pillars measure each 206 feet in circumference, and occupy a good deal more space than our Episcopal Church and tower to the enormous height of 168 feet, which is higher than the Court-house steeple. The diameter of the dome is 130 feet, (nearly twice the length of the Lutheran Church,) and its whole height is 360 feet, equal to the height of two and a half Lutheran Church steeples placed upon each other!! To support this vast superstructure the walls of the building at this part are 24 feet in thickness. The whole space occupied by this stupendous edifice is not far short of being equal to two of our squares. You ascend to the roof by a stairway wide enough to admit a carriage, and the ascent is so easy that one might read while riding up, at least with a mule. The top is surrounded by a high parapet wall, is paved with stones, and furnished with a number of lodges for the attendants, of which I was told there were 500 constantly employed in various capacities about the building. You would here rather suppose yourself in a considerable town than on the top of St. Peter's, the lodges representing the houses, and the domes (for there are three of them) the churches or public buildings. From here you ascend between the outer and inner walls of the cupola until you come to a small door which opens upon the upper gallery, a projection of masonry about two and a half feet wide protected by a delicate iron railing. Upon this apparently insecure foothold I walked around the immense circumference of the dome, suspended in air at the dizzy and fearful height of 275 feet from the pavement! Persons below had dwindled into pigmies, and the footfall and hum of the services in the chapels beneath fell upon the ear like the murmur of distant waters. It was an awfully grand and heart-stirring position! We again proceeded between the walls until we reached the lantern, which is 55 feet in height and is furnished with numerous windows from which the most magnificent views of the city and surrounding country enrapture the heart. We next ascended through the stem of the ball into the bell itself which is of sufficient dimensions to permit me to walk in it erect, and of a capacity to contain at least sixteen persons It is furnished with openings to admit light and air, and from them the Mediterranean can be discerned. I often regarded the ball from the piazza below, and its diameter did not appear to my eye to be more than eighteen inches. The whole internal part of this immense dome is finished in splendid mosaics, and the vault is divided into compartments, gilt and filled up with pictures in mosaic, and crowned with a representation of the Deity. On the entablature beneath the dome, in letters four and a half feet in length executed in mosaic, are the following words.

Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram cedificabo ecclesiam meam, et tibi dabo claves regni celorum.

Immense and incredibly vast as are the individual parts of this gigantic structure, yet so perfect are the symmetry and proportions that the whole does not strike you very powerfully at first sight. But it is a common remark among strangers, that the oftener you visit St. Peter's, the more extended and vast it appears I was constantly deceived in my estimation of the distances of objects around me, for owing to their immensity they appeared to be very near when in reality they were at a great distance. So objects that seemed small, when approached enlarged into incredible magnitude. One day I was entering the piazza of St. Peter's and observed a carriage approaching an arch on the side of the church opposite to me, which appeared at most seven feet high: but I saw the coachman crack his whip as he drew near it, and supposing him to be a stranger who did not know that he could not pass under it, I stopped to see the result. To my utter astonishment the carriage entered the arch and disappeared. It seemed like a miracle, and I went under the arch to examine it and found that I could not reach its top with my cane extended at arms length!

As you enter the church from the vestibule you push aside with difficulty, the immense leathern door-curtain and stand in the great nave. At the opposite end you see the high altar which appears quite near you, but you will find it a journey to reach it. It is of gigantic dimensions. The baldacchino or canopy and the columns are of bronze gilt, which required the enormous weight of 1033 hundred of metal to form them. The canopy rises to the immense height of ninety feet above the pavement. Before you arrive at the great altar, you come to what is called the Sacra Confessione, the place where the remains of St. Peter are said to rest, beneath the level of the pavement of the present Church. The space is protected by a balustrade of precious marbles, and a double staircase leads to the oratory below, which is ornamented with bronze gilt and encrusted with a profusion of the richest marbles. The whole is decorated with a hundred superb and elegant lamps, which are kept burning night and day. Behind the altar is the Transept,—but how is it possible for me to describe what would require months of time and volumes, to make comprehensible. All the great works of the great painters are here copied in mosaic, and the monuments and other objects of sculpture seem interminable. As I could ascertain nothing about recent estimates of the cost of St. Peter's, I conclude that they have ceased to calculate: but in 1841, the sum expended amounted already to 17 millions of dollars.