Walks in Rome (Est. 2001)
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Walking Tours of Rome

A Guide to St Peter's Basilica


The Nave


Nave of St Peter's Basilica, Rome
Nave

The Nave

The nave is 90 m long, 26 m wide and 44.5 m high. It consists of four bays, which are divided by pairs of marble pilasters, 25 m high. Between each pair of pilasters are two niches, which house statues of the sainted founders of religious orders. Personifications of the Virtues occupy the spandrels of the bay arches. 
​
The image of the dove with a sprig of laurel in its beak, which we see at the top and bottom of each pilaster, belongs to the coat of arms of Pope Innocent X (r. 1644-55), a member of the Pamphilj family, who commissioned the decoration of the nave. There is also a huge image of his coat of arms embedded in the marble pavement in the centre of the nave. 

The Latin inscription, which starts above the statue of St Peter and runs around the top of the nave, declares: ‘QVODCVMQVE LIGAVERIS SVPERTERRAM ERIT LIGATUM ET IN COELIS ET QVODCUMQVE SOLVERIS SVPERTERRAM ERIT SOLVTVM ET IN COELIS EGO ROGAVI PRO TE O PETRE VT NON DEFICIAT FIDES TVA ET TV ALIQUANDO CONVERSES CONFIRMA FRATRES TVOS’ (‘Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed also in Heaven. I have prayed for thee O Peter, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren’). The text is adapted from the gospels of St Luke (22.32) and St Matthew (16:19).

The two holy-water stoups were commissioned by Pope Benedict XIII (r. 1724-30) and designed by Agostino Cornacchini (1686-1754). The shells of yellow marble are the work of Giuseppe Lirone, while the chubby cherubs were carved by Francesco Moderati and Giovanni Battista de Rossi. 

St Peter's Basilica is the largest church in the world, a fact it chooses to proclaim in the very fabric of the building. Embedded into the pavement of the nave are a series of markers that compare the size of the basilica, in terms of its length (186.36 m), with that of a number of other churches. 

A few feet in front of the central door is a large, red porphyry disc, one of a total of six, which once ran up the centre of the nave in the old basilica. Five of the discs have disappeared and the one which has survived would originally have been located in front of the main altar. It was on this stone that Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, knelt to be crowned by Pope Leo III (r. 795-816) on Christmas Eve, 800. Another fifteen emperors would be crowned on the same disc. By the time the present basilica was built such coronations had come to an end. 

Nave, St Peter's Basilica, Rome
Porphyry disc in the nave
Statues of St Peter of Alcantara & St Lucy Filippini, nave of St Peter's Basilica, Rome
Statues of St Peter of Alcantara (lower niche) & St Lucy Filippini
holy-water stoup, St Peter's Basilica, Rome
Holy-water stoup

Private and SMALL-GROUP walking Tours of Rome

Copyright © David Lown 2001-2021. All Rights Reserved. 
  • Home
  • Private Tours
  • Contact
  • Rome
  • St Peter's Basilica
    • Altars >
      • Altar of St Joseph
      • Altar of St Gregory the Great
      • Altar of the Madonna of Succour
      • Altar of St Sebastian
      • Altar of the Lie
      • Altar of the Presentation of the Virgin
      • Altar of St Jerome
      • Altar of the Transfiguration
      • Altar of Pope Leo the Great
    • Monuments >
      • Countess Matilda of Canossa
      • Maria Clementina Sobieska
      • Queen Christina of Sweden
      • Pope Innocent VIII
      • Pope Paul III
      • Pope Gregory XIII
      • Pope Gregory XIV
      • Pope Leo XI
      • Pope Urban VIII
      • Pope Alexander VII
      • Pope Clement X
      • Pope Innocent XI
      • Pope Alexander VIII
      • Pope Innocent XII
      • Pope Benedict XIV
      • Pope Clement XIII
      • Pope Pius VII
      • Pope Leo XII
      • Pope Pius VIII
      • Pope Gregory XVI
      • Pope Pius X
      • Pope Benedict XV
      • Pope Pius XI
      • Pope Pius XII
      • Pope John XXIII
      • The Stuarts
    • Portico >
      • Door of Death
      • Door of Good and Evil
      • Central Door
      • Door of the Sacraments
      • Holy Door
    • Pieta
    • Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament
    • Cathedra Petri
    • Crossing >
      • Baldacchino
      • Confessio
      • Dome
      • St Longinus
      • St Helena
      • St Veronica
      • St Andrew
    • St Peter
    • Chapel of the Choir
    • Chapel of the Baptistery
    • Nave
  • Sistine Chapel
    • North Wall
    • South Wall
    • East Wall
    • Ceiling: Part One >
      • Ceiling: Part Two
      • Ceiling: Part Three
    • The Last Judgement
  • Fountains
    • Trevi Fountain
    • Fontana della Barcaccia
    • Fountain of the Triton
    • Fountain of the Bees
    • Fountain of Moses
    • Fountain of the Four Rivers
    • Fountain of the Acqua Paola
    • Fountain of the Turtles
    • Fountain of the Naiads
    • Fountain of the Cannonball
    • Piazza del Popolo
    • Fountain of the Pantheon
    • Fountains of Piazza Farnese
    • Fountain of Goddess Roma
    • Rioni Fountains
    • Street Fountains
    • Venice Marries the Sea
    • St Peter's Square
    • Fountain of the Moor
    • Fountain of Neptune
    • Fountain of the Porter
    • Fountain of the Seahorses
  • Gallery
    • Piazzas >
      • Piazza del Campidglio
      • Piazza del Quirinale
      • Piazza del Popolo
      • Piazza di Spagna
      • Piazza Navona
      • Piazza S. M. in Trastevere
      • Piazza San Pietro
    • Mosaics
    • Fountains
    • Churches
    • Ancient Rome
    • Palaces
    • Domes
    • Papal Coats of Arms
    • Street Shrines
    • Old Photographs
    • Borromini & the Baroque
  • Images of the Eternal City