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St. Peter's Square (Italian: Piazza San Pietro [pjattsa sam pjtro], Latin: Forum Sancti Petri) is a large
plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome,
directly west of the neighbourhood or rioneof Borgo.
At the centre of the square is an Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1586. Gian Lorenzo
Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later, including the massive Tuscan colonnades, four
columns deep, which embrace visitors in "the maternal arms of Mother Church". A granite fountain
constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed byCarlo Maderno in 1613.
The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to
1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the
greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the faade of
the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). Bernini had been working on
the interior of St. Peter's for decades; now he gave order to the space with his renowned colonnades,
using the Tuscan form of Doric, the simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the
palace-like faade by Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the
space and evoke a sense of awe.
There were many constraints from existing structures (illustration, right). The massed accretions of
the Vatican Palace crowded the space to the right of the basilica's faade; the structures needed to be
masked without obscuring the papal apartments. The obelisk marked a centre, and a granite fountain by
Maderno[1] stood to one side: Bernini made the fountain appear to be one of the foci of the ovato
tondo[2] embraced by his colonnades and eventually matched it on the other side, in 1675, just five years
before his death. Thetrapezoidal shape of the piazza, which creates a heightened perspective for a visitor
leaving the basilica and has been praised as a masterstroke of Baroque theater (illustration, below right),
is largely a product of site constraints.
Colonnades[edit]
St. Peter's Square colonnades
The colossal Tuscan colonnades, four columns deep,[3] frame the trapezoidal entrance to the basilica and
the massive elliptical area[4]which precedes it. The ovato tondo's long axis, parallel to the basilica's
faade, creates a pause in the sequence of forward movements that is characteristic of a Baroque
monumental approach. The colonnades define the piazza. The elliptical centre of the piazza, which
contrasts with the trapezoidal entrance, encloses the visitor with "the maternal arms of Mother Church" in
Bernini's expression. On the south side, the colonnades define and formalize the space, with the
Barberini Gardens still rising to a skyline of umbrella pines. On the north side, the colonnade masks an
assortment of Vatican structures; the upper stories of the Vatican Palace rise above.

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Obelisk[edit]
At the center of the ovato tondo stands an Egyptian obelisk of red granite, 25.5 metres tall, supported on
bronze lions and surmounted by the Chigi arms in bronze, in all 41 metres to the cross on its top. The
obelisk was originally erected at Heliopolis, Egypt, by an unknown pharaoh.

St. Peter's Square obelisk

The Emperor Augustus (c. 63 BC 14 AD) had the obelisk moved to the Julian Forum of Alexandria,
where it stood until 37 AD, whenCaligula ordered the forum demolished and the obelisk transferred to
Rome. He had it placed on the spina which ran along the centre of the Circus of Nero, where it would
preside over Nero's countless brutal games and Christian executions. [citation needed]
It was moved to its current site in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana under the direction
of Pope Sixtus V; the engineering feat of re-erecting its vast weight was memorialized in a suite of
engravings. The Vatican Obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since ancient
Roman times. During the Middle Ages, the gilt ball on top of the obelisk was believed to contain the ashes
of Julius Caesar.[5] Fontana later removed the ancient metal ball, now in a Rome museum, that stood atop
the obelisk and found only dust. Christopher Hibbert (page 178) writes that the ball was found to be solid.
Though Bernini had no influence in the erection of the obelisk, he did use it as the centerpiece of his
magnificent piazza, and added the Chigi arms to the top in honor of his patron, Alexander VII.
Paving[edit]
The paving is varied by radiating lines in travertine, to relieve what might otherwise be a sea
of cobblestones. In 1817 circular stones were set to mark the tip of the obelisk'sshadow at noon as
the sun entered each of the signs of the zodiac, making the obelisk a gigantic sundial's gnomon. Below is
a view of St. Peter's Square from the cupola (the top of the dome) which was taken in June, 2007.
Spina[edit]
St. Peter's Square today can be reached from the Ponte Sant'Angelo along the grand approach of the Via
della Conciliazione (in honor of the Lateran Treaty of 1929). The spina(median with buildings which
divided the two roads of Borgo vecchio and Borgo nuovo) which once occupied this grand avenue leading
to the square was demolished ceremonially by Benito Mussolini himself on October 23, 1936 and was
completely demolished by October 8, 1937. St. Peter's Basilica was now freely visible from the Castel
Sant'Angelo. After the spina, almost all the buildings south of the passetto were demolished between
1937 and 1950, obliterating one of the most important medieval and renaissance quarters of the city.
Moreover, the demolition of the spina canceled the characteristic Baroque surprise, nowadays maintained
only for visitors coming from Borgo Santo Spirito. The Via della Conciliazione was completed in time for
the Great Jubilee of 1950.

Designed and built by Bernini between 1656 and 1667, during the pontificate
of Alexander VII (1655-1667), the square is made up of two different areas.
The first has a trapezoid shape, marked off by two straight closed and
convergent arms on each side of the church square. The second area is
elliptical and is surrounded by the two hemicycles of a four-row colonnade,
because, as Bernini said, considering that Saint Peters is almost the matrix
of all the churches, its portico had to give an open-armed, maternal welcome
to all Catholics, confirming their faith; to heretics, reconciling them with the
Church; and to the infidels, enlightening them about the true faith. Bernini
had in fact designed a three-armed portico, but after Alexander VIIs death,
construction of the portico was halted, and the third arm was never built. It
would have enclosed the whole building and separated the ellipse from the
Borgo quarter, thus creating a surprise effect for the pilgrim who
suddenly found himself in the square. This effect was somewhat achieved by
the buildings surrounding the square, the so-called Spina di Borgo, which
naturally closed in the square. In 1950, Via della Conciliazione, a new,
wide street leading to the Vatican Basilica, was opened. It amplifies the
majestic view of Saint Peters dome, but it also profoundly modified Berninis
original plan. The measurements of the square are impressive: it is 320 m
deep, its diameter is 240 m and it is surrounded by 284 columns, set out in
rows of four, and 88 pilasters. Around the year 1670, Berninis pupils built
140 statues of saints, 3.20 m high along the balustrade above the columns.
On either side of the obelisk, which was moved to the middle of the square
by Domenico Fontana in 1585, are two great fountains built by Bernini
(1675) and Maderno (1614). Below, at the foot of the staircase in front of
the basilica, the statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul seem to welcome
visitors.
Of great interest is the Royal Staircase, which links the square to the Vatican
Palaces. It was built between 1662 and 1666, and although it actually
measures 60 metres, perspective devices, such as the progressive narrowing
of the width and a reduced distance between the columns towards the top,
make it look much longer.

t. Peter's Square, known locally as Piazza San Pietro, was created in the seventeenth century by
Bernini. The square, which is located in Vatican City and borders St. Peter's Basilica, is an
architectural highlight.

Creation

St. Peter's Square

seen from St. Peter's Basilica

As soon as Alexander VII was elected as the new pope in April 1655, he
commissioned sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini to create a new
square in front of the St. Peter's Basilica. Following Alexander's detailed
instructions, Bernini came up with an elliptical shaped square, 240 meters wide
and 196 meters long (787 x 643 ft). Construction of the square started in 1656
and was completed eleven years later, in 1667.

The Square

St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square is bordered on two sides by semi-circular colonnades which,

according to Bernini, symbolize the stretched arms of the church embracing the
world. The colonnades were built in 1660 and consist of four rows of columns
with in total 284 Doric columns and 88 pilasters. The columns are 20 meters
high (66 ft) and 1.6 meters wide (5ft). 140 statues were installed on top of the
colonnades, all created by Bernini and his students. They depict popes, martyrs,
evangelists and other religious figures.

The colonnade

To the left and right of the central obelisk on the square are circular marble
plates which indicate the foci of the elliptical square. When you stand on either
of these plates and look at the nearest colonnade, it will look as if there is only
one row of columns instead of four. Bernini wasn't just a great sculptor and
architect,
he
also
knew
his
geometry!
On special occasions such as the election of a new pope or on Easter, almost
400,000 people fill the expansive square.

Obelisk and Fountains

Obelisk

In the center of the square stands an Egyptian obelisk, 25.5 meters tall - 41
meters (135ft) including the pedestal. The obelisk was originally located at
Heliopolis in Egypt and was built for Cornelius Gallus, the city's prefect. In 37
AD Caligula decided to transport the obelisk to Rome with a specially
constructed ship. It was installed at the spina of the Circus of Caligula (later
known as Circus of Nero), which was located in an area now occupied by Vatican
City.
In 1585 pope Sixtus V decided to have the obelisk moved to its present location
in front of the then under construction St. Peter's Basilica, a distance of about
300 meters. The relocation was a daunting task however and even Michelangelo
considered it impossible. Sixtus however persevered and commissioned
Domenico Fontana with the transportation.

Installation of the obelisk

Carlo Fontana's fountain

St. Peter's Basilica

It took 900 men and a reported 75-140 horses and even though the ropes were
on the verge of breaking, Fontana succeeded on September 10, 1586 after an
operation
that
lasted
five
months.
In 1613 a fountain designed by Carlo Maderno was installed on the square, to
the right of the centrally located obelisk. To maintain symmetry, Bernini decided
to install an identical copy of the fountain on the left side. The fountain was
created in 1677 by Carlo Fontana.

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Square creates a magnificent entry point to the St. Peter's Basilica,
which was built between 1506 and 1626 and borders the square to the west.
The basilica is the largest in the world. Its interior is decorated with magnificent
monuments, many of which were created by the great Bernini.
Make sure you climb all the way to the top of the basilica's imposing dome designed by another great, Michelangelo, as it offers a magnificent view over
the square.

UNDER THE POPE'S NOSE

THE ARCHITECT, THE ASTRONOMER AND THE VATICAN
Who was behind the occult 'heretical' design of the St. Peter's Piazza at the Vatican?
Robert G. Bauval
(Thanks to Laura Salvucci for her contribution in the making of this article, and
also to Vicky Metafora for the translation of D. Bartoli's biography of N. Zucchi)

In 1990 I started researching for a thesis on the Hermetic Tradition and its influence
on city plans which was eventually published in 2004 in a book, Talisman: Sacred
Cities, Secret Faith co-authored with Graham Hancock. In this book I postulated
that the design of the Piazza St. Peter's at the Vatican by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for
Pope Alexander VII was influenced by the then outlawed 'heliocentric theory'.
New evidence has since come to my attention that strongly suggests that Bernini was influenced more
specifically by an astronomer who must have condoned Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion,
namely that the circuit of planets around the sun is an ellipse (and not a circle). If this correct, the
implications are enormous, since the heliocentric theory was decreed heretical by the Vatican, and any
open support for it punishable by death. Whether intended or not, St. Peter's Square thus becomes an
intellectual time-bomb that would be set off at when and if the heliocentric 'Truth' is proved to be in its
design.

REVOLUTION
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was born in Naples in 1598. This was fifty
after De revolutionibus orbiumcoelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), the seminal
work on the heliocentric theory by Copernicus was published.

Plate 1: Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Plate 2: Nicola Copernicus

The heliocentric theory that it was the Earth that revolved

around the Sun had generated a huge intellectual controversy
in the scientific community and much upheaval within the
Catholic Church who regarded it as blasphemous and
heretical.
Indeed, barely two years after the birth of Bernini, Pope
Clement VIII ordered the execution of Giordano Bruno who
had openly preached the veracity of the heliocentric theory
and, even worse, preached the revival of the ancient Egyptian
religion to replace Christianity, a weird ambition spurred by
the recently discovered 'Heretic Texts' and their translation in
Florence.
Bruno was burnt alive on the 17th February 1600 in Campo
de' Fiori in Rome, an act that had sent a gruesome warning by
the Vatican to anyone who may contemplate supporting the
heliocentric theory.

Plate 3: Statue of Giordano Bruno,

Campo Fiori, Rome

But in 1609, hardly nine years after Bruno's burning, Johann Kepler published the First Law of
Planetary Motion which fully supported Copernicus's heliocentric theory but and further improved on
it by showing that "the orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci".

Plate 4: Johann Kepler

Plate 5: Schematic representation of Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion

A few years later, in 1615, the Vatican's spokesman Cardinal

Bellarmine declared that the heliocentric system could not be
accepted without "a true physical demonstration that the sun does
not circle the earth but the earth circles the sun". In 1616
Bellarmine ordered the astronomer Galileo Galilei not to
supported the heliocentric theory. But in 1623 after Cardinal
Maffeo Barberini, who was a friend and supporter of Galileo, was
elected Pope as Urban VIII, Galileo felt encouraged to be more
open about his views and support of the theory.
In 1632, however, Galileo made the lethal mistake of publishing
the Dialogo dei Massimi Sistemi (Dialogue Concerning the Two
World Systems) which was construed by the Vatican an ad
hominem attack on the Pope. Infuriated, Urban III ordered
Galileo's arrest. Galileo was tried by the Roman Inquisition for
being "vehemently suspect of heresy", and was coerced to recant
after being shown the instruments of torture. Galileo remained
under house arrest for the rest of his life. He died in 1642.

Plate 6: Galileo Galilei

BERNINI
In 1642, the year Galileo died, Bernini was 44 years old. He had already been working for the Pope for
many years and now was the Chief Architect for the Vatican and Superintendent of Works for the city of
Rome. Although Bernini was an ardent Catholic and devotee of the Jesuit Order, he may have veiled a
support for the heliocentric theory as, indeed, many of the Jesuit scholars did in those troubled times. In

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view of this, some important events of Bernini's require closer scrutiny.

1. Bernini's close relationship with the Jesuit scholars, particularly Athanasius Kircher who collaborated
with Bernini in the placing of various Egyptian obelisks in Rome, and also the Jesuit astronomer
Nocola Zucchi who had actually met Johann Kepler at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand II, and the Jesuit mathematician Paul Guldin, both of whom seemed to support the
heliocentric theory.
2. Bernini's controversial trip to Paris in 1665 under the patronage of the Sun-king Louis XIV, and the
earlier influence of the Italian astrologer Tomasso Campanella, author of Civita Solis, 'The City of
the Sun', at the French court.
3. Bernini's 'elliptical' design of the Piazza St. Pietro in 1659-67 around the ancient Egyptian obelisk
from Heliopolis, the quintessential 'City of the Sun'.

KIRCHER
In 1621, when Bernini was 23 and now living in Rome, a young Jesuit
novice, Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), fled from his homeland in
Germany at the outbreak of the Thirty Years War and eventually found
his way into Rome. In 1635 Kircher was recruited at the Jesuit College.
In 1638, the year of the birth of the future 'Sun King' Louis XIV of
France, Kircher became Professor of Mathematics at the Jesuit College,
but his real interest was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved on the
Egyptian obelisks brought to Rome by past Roman emperors. Soon
Kircher fame became such that scholars from all over the world
corresponded with him and came to see him in Rome. Among the
visitors had been the French painter Nicolas Poussin to whom Kircher
taught perspectives. Kircher was also a keen collector of antiquities, and
establish the Museo Kircheriano.
Plate: Athanasius Kircher

Like Giordano Bruno before him, and in spite of his Jesuit affiliation, Kircher regarded the ancient
Egyptian religion as the source not only of Greek and Roman religion but also of the Hebrews, and
also that Egypt was the source of all civilisations, and that all ancient philosophies including Hebrew
Cabala, had been derived from Egyptian wisdom teachings as found in the Hermetic writings.
According to the British scholar Dame Frances Yates, Kircher was the "most notable descendant of the
Hermetic-Cabalist tradition" and "much preoccupied with Isis and Osiris as the chief gods of Egypt."
Also to be noted was that in 1633 Kircher had once been invited by Ferdinand II to replace Johann
Kepler as mathematician to the Hapsboug court in Prague, although the order was rescinded. One of

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Kircher's very close friends in Rome was Bernini, and they collaborated together on several urban
projects for the Vatican, notable the placing of an ancient Egyptian obelisk in the Piazza della Minerva
where once had stood a temple of Isis. It was well-known even at that time, that Egyptian obelisks
were symbols of the sun, and that they once serviced a religion which had the sun-god at its
culmination and which Kircher saw as evidence of heliocentric belief.

THE 'CITY OF THE SUN' AND CAMPANELLA

In 1634 the Italian Hermetic philosopher and
astrologer Campanella fled the Inquisition and went
to Paris where he was well-received at the court of
Louis XIII. In 1637 this very strange, enigmatic
Italian rebellious Dominican monk prophesied the
birth of a heir to the royal couple, Louis XIII and
Anne of Austria (a very daring prophesy because
the couple had been childless since 1614). It may
well-have been Campanella's obsession with the
'Sun' and the heliocentric ideologies (he had
personally known Galileo in Padua in 1592 and had
later published an 'Apologia Pro Galileo' in 1622)
who planted the seed that would sprout a French
'Sun-king' in the person of Louis XIV, fuelled by
his fervent hopes to have a European monarch
Plate 7: Equestrian statue of Louis XIV as 'Alexander the
bring about the utopic solar city predicted in his
famous book Citta del Sole ('The City of the Sun'), Great' by Bernini (now in the courtyard of the Louvre
Museum)
published in 1623.

Amazingly, Campanella's unlikely prediction of the birth of the 'Sun King' actually came about on the
5th September 1638 when Anne of Austria gave birth to a boy and which, by strange synchronicity,
was also the day of Campanella's birthday (5th September 1568). Campanella died a year later in Paris
in 1639.
In 1664 Louis XIV, the 'Sun-king', now 26 years old, commissioned a series of huge architectural
projects in Paris and at Versailles. He invited the Bernini to be advisor and witness to these historical
events and, more specifically, to overseer the design the new faade for the Louvre Palace, the latter
the residence of the kings of France (and today Europe's most famous museum). At that time Bernini's
reputation was universal, and he had just begun the work that would immortalise him as an architect:
the design of the great piazza in front of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome. Bernini's visit to Paris was
unique in that it was the first and only time that he would travel out of Italy. As it turned out, Bernini's
trip to Paris was something of a fiasco. He quarrelled with the French architects and eventually ended
up offending Louis XIV who was forced to deny him the design of the new Louvre. Nonetheless the
Sun-king paid Bernini lavishly for his visit, and Bernini returned to Rome a much richer man. He did,
however, leave two artistic legacies in the form of sculptures (note:a bust of the Sun-king by Bernini is

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today displayed at the Louvre Museum, and the other an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. A copy of this
statue was brought from Versailles to the Louvre Museum in 1998, where it was placed in perfect
alignment with the so-called Historical Axis of the Champs Elysees that passes through the ancient
Egyptian obelisk at the Place de la Concorde and extends west towards the sunset at two special dates
of year: 6th August the day of the 'Transfiguration of Christ' and 8th May the feast of 'St. Michel du
Printemps').
It was in the years following his visit to Paris (June to October 1665) that Bernini completed the
design of the Piazza St. Pietro in 1667, where, we now postulate, intense 'solar' symbolism evoking
Kepler's First Law was used in conjunction with the ancient Egyptian obelisk from Heliopolis, the
'City of the Sun', that stood in the epicentre of the ground plan.

ELLIPSE
Bernini's design of the piazza in front of
the Basilica of St. Peter's in Rome is
enigmatic. True, there was a need for a
large, organised space to contain the big
crowds that gathered for the Pope's
benedictions on special occasions, and
Bernini was called to design it. Bernini
came up with an effective though most
unusual, design: he proposed a huge
ellipse which he claimed represented the
encircling arms of "Mother Church" and
for all "Catholics to confirm their faith,
and others to welcome them to the
Church and show them the Way."
Plate 8: The alleged symbolic "anatomical" plan for St. Peter's
Piazza

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Plate 9: View of the Piazza St. Peter's looking east from the top of the Basilica

What is most interesting in this design, however, is Bernini's huge ellipse had for its centre an ancient
Egyptian obelisk that had originally stood at Heliopolis in Egypt, the quintessential 'City of the Sun' of
the ancient world. The whole piazza is about 340 m. in width, and the ellipse has a 240 m. wide span.
The ellipse is partially enclosed on both sides by covered colonnades with 284 columns and 88
pilasters, and the balustrades on the tops of each colonnade have a grand total of 140 statues
representing Catholic saints. Finally at the base of the great staircase that leads into the Basilica there
are two large statues of St. Peter and St. Paul "greeting the faithful".

Plate 10: Overhead aerial view of the Piazza St. Peter's. Note Plate 11: The Summer Solstice sunrise from the Latitude of
the alignment of the summer and winter solstices and the two Rome
foci/fountains left and right of the central obelisk.

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OBELISCO VATICANO
The Egyptian obelisk that is at the centre of Bernini's design
has a chequered history. Known today as 'The Vatican Obelisk',
it stands more than 25 metres high and weighs 320 tons. It was
hewn from a single block of solid granite. It is one of twelve
original Egyptian obelisks that can still be seen in Rome . The
Vatican Obelisk is somewhat unusual in that none of its faces
bear any hieroglyphic inscriptions. We know, however, that it
was brought to Rome from Egypt on the orders of Emperor
Caligula (AD 12-41). It was transported across the
Mediterranean in a special ship and set in place in AD 37 in the
Vatican Circus, which Caligula had built for chariot racing. As
to the ancient Egyptian provenance of the obelisk, we learn
from the Roman historian Pliny, a contemporary of Caligula,
that it had been made for "Nuncoreus, the son of Sesostris".
The reference here, quite obviously, is to a successor of the
12th dynasty Pharaoh Sesostris I (1971-1926 BC) who is
known to have carried out extensive restoration on the great
sun temple of Heliopolis.
Plate 12: The Obelisco Vaticano

Heliopolis, of course, was the heart of the ancient Egyptian sun-religion and it held the same powerful
significance to the ancient Egyptians as the Vatican does to catholic Christians today.
The obelisk remained in the Vatican Circus for the next 1600 years, the very place where Saint Peter
was believed to have been martyred in AD 64. The site was eventually redeveloped to become the
epicentre of the Roman Catholic world: the Vatican. The basilica of St. Peter was begun in 334 AD by
Constantine the Great but not completed until the 16th century by the architect and sculptor Bramante,
followed by Raphael and finally by Michelangelo. It stands half over the top of, and overlaps with, the
ancient Vatican Circus of Caligula. Meanwhile Caligula's obelisk had ended up close to the south wall
of the Basilica, almost forgotten in a small alleyway partly covered by rubbish and debris until the
15th century. The idea to move it to the position of honour in front of the Basilica of St. Peter came
from Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455). The Pope wanted that the base of the obelisk should stand on four
life-size bronze statues of the Evangelists and that its tip should be surmounted by a huge bronze
statue of Jesus with a golden cross in his hand. But Pope Nicholas died before he could commission
the work, and the project was shelved. The task to move the obelisk eventually fell on Pope Sixtus V
(1585-1590) the last of the 'Renaissance Popes'. Sixtus dispensed with the four figures of the
Evangelists proposed by Nicolas V and replaced them with four lions around a stone pedestal. He also
dispensed with the idea of a statue of Jesus balanced on the tip of the obelisk. He retained the bronze
sphere (popularly believed to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar the first "divine" emperor of Rome
and also "pharaoh" of Egypt) and put inside it fragments of "Christ's True Cross" allegedly in the
possession of the Vatican. He then ordered that the heraldic symbol of his own family, a star over three
small mountains, be placed above the bronze sphere, and then, above the star, a golden cross. It was in
this form, that the ancient obelisk from Heliopolis was finally raised in the heart of the Vatican on 27

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September 1588. The obelisk was then exorcised by a bishop who solemnly cried out:
"I exorcise you, creature of stone, in the name of omnipotent God, that you may become an exorcised
stone worthy of supporting the Holy Cross, and be freed from any vestige of impurity or shred of
paganism and from any assault of spiritual impurity."
These words can be seen today carved in Latin into the western and eastern sides of the base of the
obelisk. (note: oddly, an obelisk surmounted by a cross actually spells out in ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphic signs the word "An", the ancient Egyptian name for Heliopolis, 'City of the Sun'; also
note the 'cross within the circle' and how it compares with Bernini's 'cross within the ellipse' marking
the sunrises and sunsets of the solstices).

Plate 13: The hieroglyphic name (An) for Heliopolis (from Wallis Budge's An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary vol. II).

Bernini must have known from Kircher that his plan was a combination of ancient Egyptian and
contemporary ideologies which evoked the heliocentric 'truth'. Also it would seem odd, considering
his close friendship with astronomer Nicola Zucchi, if Bernini was not aware that by putting an ellipse
around a sun symbol (the obelisk) he was blatantly evoking Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion.

NICOLA ZUCCHI

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Nicola Zucchi (1586 - 1670) was a Jesuit astronomer and a

physicist, with a particular interest in the science of optics. As a
professor at the Roman College, he taught mathematics, rhetorics
and theology. Zucchi was then appointed rector of the new Jesuit
college in Ravenna by Cardinal Alessandro Orsini. Zucchi
published several scientific books on science, as well as his famous
Optica philosophica in 1652.

Plate 14: Nicola Zucchi

In 1632, Zucchi served as the Papal legate to the court of the Holy
Roman Emperor Ferdinand II in Prague. There he met Johann
Kepler whom, apparently, he wanted to convert into the Jesuit
Order. Zucchi maintained regular correspondence with Kepler after
he returned to Rome.

Later, when Kepler faced some financial difficulties, Zucchi kindly gave him a telescope of his own
design. Bernini had a very close association with Zucchi, and bore him great respect and admiration.
In Bernini's own words: "I admire and respect the great gift he (Zucchi) possessed to enlighten
brainpower". It was Bernini who in 1656 designed the frontispiece of Zucchi's book Optica
Philosophia --the very same year that he began working on the design of the Piazza St. Peter's.

HYPOTHESIS
It is my contention that Zucchi, who was clearly convinced by Kepler's "Ellipse" First Law of
Planetary Motion, may in turn have convinced Bernini. This would have produced a huge spiritual
conflict in both Zucchi and Bernini because, on the one hand they could not deny the truth of the
heliocentric system, yet on the other hand they were devout Catholics and blindly accept the
infallibility of the Pope who rejected the heliocentric theory and saw it as heretical. Faced with such
dilemma, and obviously acutely aware that any open support for the heliocentric theory would put
their lives (or freedom at the very least) at risk, Zucchi and Bernini may have secret plotted to
incorporate a 'Hermetic Device' into the design of the Piazza St. Peter's ---the idea being that Bernini
could always insist that the design was simply symbolic of 'Mother Church embracing the faithful'
which, in any case, the Pope had fully approved.
Were Bernini and Zucchi in actual fact trying to saving the Church from making a grave error of
denying the truth of Creation?
Were these men of science and art who were also staunch Catholics, providing the Vatican with the
opportunity to, at some future time, be able to claim that this 'truth' had been acknowledged and
integrated in the design of the Pizza, in spite of the official opposition by the Inquisition?

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THE ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCE OF SOLAR SYMBOLISM BASED ON KEPLER'S

THEORY IN THE DESIGN OF THE PIAZZA ST. PETER'S

When Bernini began to work on the

design of the Piazza St. Peter's and the
colonnade, the Basilica had already long
been completed by Bramante and
Michelangelo. It seems obvious that the
east-west axis of the Basilica was
intended to face the rising sun at the
equinoxes i.e. due east. But if so, the
alignment is not exact, for it deviates
some 2 degrees towards the north
(azimuth 358 degrees). However, when
later Bernini set out the Piazza, he
corrected this error and made sure that the
east-west axis of the piazza was aligned
precisely due east (azimuth 360 degrees).
This difference in alignments between the
Basilica and the Piazza can be clearly
seen today when facing the entrance of
the Basilica.

Plate 15: The facade of the Basilica St. Peter's. The alignments of the
Basilica is 2 degrees from the due east alignment of the Piazza.

When standing at the obelisk facing east,

the limits of the colonnades left and right
of the observer would mark the position
of the sunrise at summer solstice (left)
and winter solstice (right) at azimuths
57.5 degrees and 122.5 degrees
respectively (32.5 degrees north of east;
32.5 degrees south of east).

The contour of the Piazza is clearly elliptical with the two foci symbolized by the position of the two
fountains set east and west of the obelisk. [Note: There is a curious story of how Bernini moved the
fountains to the position they are now. The two fountains may seem identical but they were in fact
built at fifty years apart. The first, on the right of the colonnade, is the work of Carlo Maderno in
1613. The second was made by Bernini and inaugurated in 1677. The first fountain in St Peter square
already existed in 1490 but was placed on the right side of the square, built with decorated slabs with
figures and two round bowls. In 1612 Pope Paul V (Borghese) commissioned Carlo Maderno to
connect the fountain with the new aqueduct from Bracciano's lake. When later Pope Alexander III

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commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to build the colonnade, Bernini built a second fountain identical
to that of Maderno and move the old fountain in line with east-west line going through the obelisk and
the new fountain].
[Note: The obelisk was also later used as a gnomon. The elongation of the shadow it cast at noon at
various times of the year was marked on the ground with white marble round slabs inscribed with the
months of the year. The shortest shadow, which marks the summer solstice, is denoted as 'Cancer' 22
June i.e. the sun reaching the 'Tropic of Cancer' (in real-sky astronomy this would date the site to
epocastronomy this would date the site to epoch c. 1500 BC to 1AD. At the time Bernini designed the
Piazza, 1656-1667, the true summer solstice was in Gemini. It is now in Taurus since 2000, and will
move into Ares in c. 4650, based on IAU boundaries].

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