An explosion of beauty and perfection

The Basilica becomes beautiful for the Jubilee of Hope: the beauty that the Church is called to reflect, but also an invitation to inner renewal.

The canopy was made between 1624 and 1635 for Pope Urban VIII Barberini by the architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini with Francesco Borromini, his rival but decisive team player. The gilded bronze monument, almost 30 metres high, stands on four slender twisted columns inspired by the marble columns arranged around Peter's tomb in the ancient basilica and visible today on the Logge delle Reliquie. These magnificent columns, 11.20 metres high, rest on pedestals bearing the papal coats of arms with the symbolic 'Barberini bees'. On the sky of the canopy is the Dove of the Holy Spirit, while on the pediment, dominated by the cross on the globe, four artistic angels alternate with four pairs of cherubs bearing the keys and triregnum of St. Peter and the sword and book of St. Paul. About 68 tons of bronze were used for the entire work, with precious gold highlights. And to think that an old adage goes: 'Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini' (What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did).

The restoration work, under the technical-scientific direction of the Fabbrica di San Pietro and in synergy with the Scientific Research Laboratory of the Vatican Museums, was carried out by master restorers with consolidated and recognised experience. The Order of the Knights of Columbus, which has been collaborating with the Fabbrica di San Pietro for over forty years, is bearing the financial burden of approximately 700,000 euro.

Engineer Alberto Capitanucci, head of the technical area of the Fabbrica di San Pietro with Pietro Zander, head of the Necropolis and Artistic Heritage Section of the Fabbrica worked arm in arm, sparing no effort. In their eyes was the joy and emotion of those who know they have had an unrepeatable appointment with history.

A restoration that provided new information thanks to the analysis of the materials and techniques used. Each column, for example, is composed of three cast parts, plus the base and capital, and each part has laurel leaves, cherubs and bees, all part of the same casting and not welded separately. It is, according to experts, an extremely complex process, executed to perfection, like everything in St Peter's. And so it is that one finds oneself before an explosion of beauty and perfection.

When I climb - not without trepidation - onto the scaffold, between the four columns, Pietro Zander points out to me that a small grasshopper has been found on one of the capitals, which was only noticed after the restoration, as its dark colour blended with the impure gold. However, it is not alone. There are also lizards, a salamander and a life-sized fly on those columns. The smelters enjoyed hiding their signatures, invisible from above or from afar.

In the most hidden and inaccessible areas of the roof, some twenty metres above ground, small objects were found, minor testimonies of past eras. From a newspaper hat from the 19th century to a shopping list. Things forgotten up there: the sole of a child's shoe, recalling the family tradition of a Sanpietrino who shows his little son the work he will do. There are also signatures and initials of those who have been involved in the maintenance of the canopy over the years, with dates that represent pride, similar to a 'book of honour'. Discoveries that moved us and allowed us to grasp the most human aspect of an extraordinary work of art.