28. On Entering the Largest Church in the World
We begin with the total destruction of the Old St. Peter’s and then visit the center of the Renaissance and Baroque Basilica that replaced it. We find there the Confessio, the high altar, and Bernini’s soaring Baldacchino. Surrounding these central elements Bernini placed four huge statues and four associated relics, and nearby he situated a massive “Chair of St. Peter,” so important as a defense of papal authority, and matched statues of two powerful popes.