The original St. Peter's Basilica

Most people are probably not aware of the fact that the present St. Peter's is not the original church, but was built on the site of a church which was planned and begun by Constantine in 330 AD and which stood for almost 1200 years until the present basilica was built from 1506 to 1626.

At left is a drawing of the nave of Old St. Peter's.  The nave was 340 feet long, and had two aisles on either side, much like the Mission San Juan Bautista.  For comparison, the current St. Peter's is 730 feet long.

Here is the outer facade of Old St. Peter's.  Its asymmetrical design is only one of the things that appear odd to us who are used to Bramante, Michaelangleo, and Bernini's designs.  There was also a large colonnaded atrium between the outer and inner facades.

At left is the inner facade, which one would face after entering through the outer facade pictured above.


Finally, below is a diagram showing the original location of Nero's Circus (green), the location of Old St. Peter's (brown), and the current Basilica with buildings of the present (gray).  The reason why the basilicas are slightly offset from where the circus was, and where St. Peter was crucified, is explained in GREAT detail at saintpetersbasilica.org

There is a wealth of material available about the original site of St. Peter's death, how early Christians kept the relics of the Apostle during the first 3 centuries, and how the site was treated and eventually selected and prepared for the construction of the basilica after the accession of Constantine as Emperor and his proclamation of Christianity as the Empire's official religion.