St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City [Rome]

St. Peter's Basilica is located in the Vatican City Rome Italy, west of the Tiber River near the Janiculum Hill and Hadrian's Mausoleum. It's CUPOLA (dome) dominates the skyline of Rome. The basilica is approached via St. Peter's Square. It's Renaissance style facade of the basilica, with a giant order of columns, stretches across the end of the square and is approached by steps on which stand two 18.2 ft statues of the 1st-century apostles to Rome, Saints Peter and Paul. The basilica is cruciform shaped, with an elongated nave in the Latin cross. The central space is dominated both externally and internally by one of the largest domes in the world. One of the decorated bronze doors leading from the narthex is the Holy Door, only opened during jubieles. The interior is of vast dimensions when compared with other churches. One author wrote: "Only gradually does it dawn upon us – as we watch people draw near to this or that monument, strangely they appear to shrink; they are, of course, dwarfed by the scale of everything in the building. With piers supporting a barrel-vault, the highest of any church. The nave has a number of chapels off them. There are also chapels surrounding the dome around in a clockwise direction they are: The Baptistery, the Chapel of the Presentation of the Virgin, the larger Choir Chapel, the Clementine Chapel with the altar of Saint Gregory, the Sacristy Entrance, the left transept with altars to the Crucifixion of Saint Peter, Saint Joseph and Saint Thomas, the altar of Saint Peter and the Paralytic, the apse with the Chair of Saint Peter, the altar of Saint Peter raising Tabitha, the altar of the Archangel Michael, the altar of the Navicella, the right transept with altars of Saint Erasmus, Saints Processo and Martiniano, and Saint Wenceslas, the altar of Saint Basil, the Gregorian Chapel with the altar of the Madonna of Succour, the larger Chapel of the Holy Sacrament, the Chapel of Saint Sebastian and the Chapel of the Pietà. At the hea..