Veni, vidi, vici

To end off the last day of the trip, I visited San Pietro. Yet another church with two important pieces.

St. Peter's Chains:
Also known as the Basilica Eudoxiana it was first rebuilt on older foundations in 432–440 AD to house the relic of the chains that bound Saint Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem, the episode called "Librtation of Saint Peter" The Empress Eudoxia (wife of Emperor Valentinian III), who received them as a gift from her mother, presented the chains to Pope Leo I. Aelia Eudocia had received these chains as a gift from Iuvenalis, bishop of Jerusalem.

According to legend, when Leo compared them to the chains of St. Peter's final imprisonment in the Mamertine Prison, in Rome, the two chains miraculously fused together. The chains are now kept in a reliquary under the main altar in the Basilica.

This Basilica is now the oldest building I have ever been in. It replaces the Tower of London

Moses:
Michelangelo Moses was completed in 1515, while originally intended as part of a massive 47-statue, free-standing funeral monument for Pope Julis II, it became the centerpiece of the Pope's funeral monument and tomb in this, the church. Moses is depicted with horns, connoting "the radiance of the Lord", due to the similarity in the Hebrew words for "beams of light" and "horns". This kind of iconographic symbolism was common in early sacred art, and for an artist horns are easier to sculpt than rays of light.

Note the braille on the story board. AccessibilityЧитать далее