St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica is in Vatican City, a very small country inside the city of Rome.

It is a giant church with a huge round dome. Catholics come here from all over the world to pray. In front of it is a big square with rows of columns.

St. Peter's Basilica stands in Vatican City, a tiny independent country of just 44 hectares inside Rome. It is the church of the popes, the leaders of the Catholic Church, and a place where Catholics come to worship from around the world.

The basilica is named for the Apostle Peter, whom Catholics count as the first in the line of popes, and it stands over the place of his tomb. It took more than 100 years to build, and it is famous for its enormous dome and its art, such as Michelangelo's marble sculpture, the Pietà. UNESCO lists all of Vatican City as a World Heritage Site.

Britannica describes St. Peter's as one of the most renowned works of Renaissance architecture, with many Baroque elements: a three-aisled Latin cross with a dome at the crossing, directly above the high altar that covers the shrine of the Apostle Peter. As the church of the popes it is one of only four major basilicas and a major pilgrimage site, where crowds of tens of thousands attend liturgies led by the pope.

UNESCO, which inscribed Vatican City in 1984, records that the basilica stands above remains of Constantine's 4th-century basilica, ruins of the circus of Caligula and Nero, and a 1st-century Roman necropolis where Peter's tomb lies. The basilica's own site (2026) calls it the largest church in the world; Britannica (2026) notes that in 1989 it was exceeded in size by the new basilica at Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire.

The dome is very big and round. A little tower sits on its top.

Outside is a huge square with curved rows of columns. Inside are famous statues. One is a marble statue by Michelangelo.

The great dome rises above the main altar, and a small tower called a lantern sits on top of it. In front of the church, St. Peter's Square, designed by Bernini, is shaped like an oval and wrapped in curving rows of columns, called colonnades.

Inside are masterpieces of art. Michelangelo carved the marble Pietà in 1498, when he was only 23. Over the main altar stands Bernini's bronze canopy, called the baldachin. About 90 popes are buried in the basilica.

Above the high altar and the confessio, the sunken space that lets visitors look down toward Peter's tomb, rises Bernini's bronze baldachin of 1624 to 1633. Other works include Michelangelo's Pietà of 1498, made when he was 23 for the tomb of Cardinal Jean de Bilhères in a chapel of the old basilica, and the Cathedra, an ancient wooden throne traditionally regarded as Peter's.

Bernini's elliptical piazza, outlined by colonnades and completed in 1667 after eleven years of work, forms the approach; UNESCO notes that the colonnade opens walled Vatican City toward Rome. Maderno added a bay at each end of the facade for bell towers, but only one was built, to a different design by Bernini, in 1637. The basilica holds the tombs of about 90 popes.

Today, St. Peter's is still a busy church.

People come to pray and to visit. Workers keep it clean and repair it every day.

St. Peter's is still a working church. The pope leads services in the basilica and in the square, and crowds of tens of thousands of people often gather. Pilgrims and visitors from all over the world come to see it and its art.

A team of workers called the Sanpietrini welcomes visitors and cleans, guards and repairs the basilica every day. Its dome can be seen from across the river.

Britannica describes the basilica and its square as the setting for many liturgies presided over by the pope, frequently drawing crowds of tens of thousands. The Fabbrica di San Pietro still runs its conservation, maintenance and use, and keeps a mosaic studio dating to the 16th century and a School of Arts and Crafts for traditional skills.

In 2026 the basilica marked the 400th anniversary of its dedication (1626 to 2026) with a series of events. UNESCO describes Vatican City as an exemplary creation of Renaissance and Baroque art that has influenced the arts since the 16th century, its walls holding masterpieces and living institutions.