St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square (Italian: Piazza San Pietro [ˈpjattsa sam ˈpjɛːtro], Latin: Forum Sancti Petri) is a large plaza in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome. The Pope frequently addresses pilgrims gathered in the square. It is named after Saint Peter.

At the centre of the square is an ancient Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1586. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later^[1][2] A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613.

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St. Peter's Square within Vatican City

1. ↑ William Tronzo, ed., St. Peter's in the Vatican, Cambridge University Press, 2005, page 149.
2. ↑ Franco Mormondo, Bernini: His Life and His Rome, University of Chicago Press, 2011, page 203.