Old Sait Peter's Basilica

St Peter by Francesco del Cossa, 1473

Fresco by Pietro Perugino in the Sistine Chapel, 1480–1482

Saint Peter by Vasco Fernandes, 1506




Crucifixion of Saint Peter (Caravaggio)

Old St. Peter's Basilica was the building that stood, from the 4th to 16th centuries, where the new St. Peter's Basilica stands today in Vatican City. Construction of the basilica, built over the historical site of the Circus of Nero, began during the reign of Emperor Constantine I. The name "old St. Peter's Basilica" has been used since the construction of the current basilica to distinguish the two buildings.

Drawing of the Circus of Nero

A basilica (Old St. Peter's) was erected by Constantine over the site, using some of the existing structure of the Circus of Nero. The basilica was sited so that its apse was centered on Peter's tomb (now beneath the high altar of the current St Peter's Basilica). The circus itself was already abandoned by the middle of the second century AD, when the area was partitioned and given in concession to private individuals for the construction of tombs belonging to the necropolis. However it seems most of the ruins of the Circus survived until 1450, when they were finally destroyed by the construction of the new St. Peter's Basilica.

The Circus of Nero is on the bottom, Old St. Peter’s Basilica is bolded and off to the right, and the current St. Peter’s Basilica is shown with dotted lines and is off to the left.The small cross next to the obelisk in the center of the Circus of Nero is believed to have been the location of St. Peter’s martyrdom. That obelisk – believed to have been present in the Circus of Nero when St. Peter was martyred and perhaps one of the last things he saw – is the same one that now stands in the center of St. Peter’s square; it was moved to its current location in 1586 during the construction of the new St. Peter’s Basilica.

How the obelisk was re-erected in St. Peter’s square after being moved.





a cutaway view of the church in the 4th century

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Via CorneliaVia Cornelia is an ancient Roman Road that supposedly ran east–west along the northern wall of the Circus of Nero on land now covered by the southern wall of St. Peter's Basilica. The location is closely associated with the Via Aurelia and the Via Triumphalis."Well-authenticated documents" from the fourth century state that Saint Peter was buried along the Via Triumphalis.

Necropolis of Via Triumphalis

The “Scavi” refers to the excavations of the necropolis underneath St. Peter’s Basilica, where the tomb of St. Peter is located.The Vatican necropolis was originally a burial ground built on the southern slope of the Vatican Hill, adjacent to the Circus of Caligula. In accordance with the Roman law, it was forbidden to bury the dead within the city walls. For this reason, burial grounds sprang up along the roads outside of the city cemeteries. One of these streets, the Via Cornelia, ran north along the Vatican hill.

Originally raised in the Forum Iulium in Alexandria by the prefect Cornelius Gallus on Augustus' orders around 30–28 BC. No hieroglyphs. Brought to Rome by Caligula in 40 for the spina of the Vatican Circus. Relocated by Pope Sixtus V in 1586 using a method devised by Domenico Fontana; the first monumental obelisk raised in the modern period, it is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since Roman times. During the Middle Ages, the gilt ball on top of the obelisk was believed to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar. Fontana later removed the ancient metal ball, now in a Rome museum, that stood atop the obelisk and found only dust. Pedro Tafurin his Andanças. (circa 1440) mentions that many passed between the ground and the "tower" base "thinking it a saintly thing".

At the top of the circus that Caligula built, an Egyptian obelisk had been placed. The obelisk had been there since ancient times; in 1586 it was moved from its original place by Domenico Fontana on the orders of Pope Sixtus V when St. Peter's Square was added.

The original location, just before the current excavation Office (SCAVI) of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, is marked by a plaque in the ground.

Domenico Fontana (1543 – 28 June 1607)

Constantine the Great, also known as Constantine I, the “Thirteenth Apostle.”

Constantine I, was a Roman Emperor who ruled between 306 and 337 AD. Born in Naissus, in Dacia Ripensis, city now known as Niš (Serbia), he was the son of Flavius Valerius Constantius, a Roman Army officer of Illyrian origins. His mother Helena was Greek. His father became Caesar, the deputy emperor in the west, in 293 AD. Constantine was recalled west to campaign under his father in Britannia (Britain). Constantine was acclaimed as emperor by the army at Eboracum (modern-day York) after his father's death in 306 AD. He emerged victorious in a series of civil wars against Emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become sole ruler of both west and east by 324 AD.

 He introduced the solidus [basis of the word "soldier"], a new gold coin that became the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years.

Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He joined the Christian faith on his deathbed, being baptised by Eusebius of Nicomedia.

Eusebius of Nicomedia 

The Baptism of Constantine, as imagined by students of Raphael

 He called the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which produced the statement of Christian belief known as the Nicene Creed.

Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine, accompanied by the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325), holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

The Nicene Creed was adopted to resolve the Arian controversy.

The Nicene Creed of 325 explicitly affirms the co-essential divinity of the Son, applying to him the term "consubstantial".  The 381 version speaks of the Holy Spirit as worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son. [essentially cementing the trinity]

The purpose of a creed is to provide a doctrinal statement of correct belief or orthodoxy. The creeds of Christianity have been drawn up at times of conflict about doctrine: acceptance or rejection of a creed served to distinguish believers and deniers of particular doctrines. For that reason, a creed was called in Greek a σύμβολον (symbolon), which originally meant half of a broken object which, when fitted to the other half, verified the bearer's identity. The Greek word passed through Latin symbolum into English "symbol", which only later took on the meaning of an outward sign of something.

The Column of Constantine, built by Constantine I in 330 to commemorate the establishment of Constantinople as the new capital of the Roman Empire.

Constantinople was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I (272–337) in 324 on the site of an already-existing city, Byzantium, which was settled in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, in around 657 BC, by colonists of the city-state of Megara.

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge took place between the Roman EmperorsConstantine I and Maxentius on 28 October 312. It takes its name from the Milvian Bridge, an important route over the Tiber. Constantine won the battle and started on the path that led him to end the Tetrarchy and become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. 

the Aurelian walls 

Construction of Old St. Peter's Basilica began by orders of the Roman Emperor Constantine I between 318 and 322, and took about 40 years to complete. Constantine was interested in the shrine of Peter's burial place, beyond the Aurelian walls, next to Nero's Circus.

Pope Leo I

  ...a Roman aristocrat...Bishop of Rome from  440 and died in 461. Pope Benedict XVI said that Leo's papacy "...was undoubtedly one of the most important in the Church's history."

During his absence in Gaul, Pope Sixtus III died (11 August 440) [88/44], and on 29 September [11/9] Leo was unanimously elected by the people to succeed him.

Leo died on 10 November 461 [111,11]

 Saint Leo on 18 February

Raphael's The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila depicts Leo, escorted by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, meeting with the Hun king outside Rome.

 He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452 and persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy. He is also a Doctor of the Church, most remembered theologically for issuing the Tome of Leo.

...a letter sent by Pope Leo I to Flavian of Constantinople explaining the position of the Papacy in matters of Christology [studies Jesus Christ's humanity and divinity, and the relation between these two aspects. The text confesses that Christ has two natures and was not of or from two natures].  
Council of Chalcedon in 451 issued a formulation of the hypostatic union of the two natures of Christ, one human and one divine, "united with neither confusion nor division". 

Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, 

 from 8 October to 1 November, 451[88/111]

Hypostatic union (from the Greek: ὑπόστασις hypóstasis, "sediment, foundation, substance, subsistence") is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one hypostasis, or individual existence.

The Christ Pantocrator of St. Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai is one of the oldest Eastern Roman religious icons, dating from the 6th century AD

Mirrored composites of left and right sides of image

Christ’s features on his left side (the viewer's right) are supposed to represent the qualities of his human nature, while his right side (the viewer's left) represents his divinity.

...the icon at Sinai could have been a possible representation of the famous icon of 
Christ of the Chalke Gate: (The name, which means "the Bronze Gate")

Map of the ceremonial and administrative heart of Constantinople, showing the Chalke Gate in the right centre

*

Christ the Chalkites

Iconodulism  designates the religious veneration of icons. The term comes from Neoclassical Greek εἰκονόδουλος (eikonodoulos), meaning "one who serves images". It is also referred to as Iconophilism (also Iconophily or Iconophilia) designating a positive attitude towards the religious use of icons. In the history of Christianity, Iconodulism (or Iconophilism) was manifested as a moderate position, between two extremes: Iconoclasm (radical opposition to the use of icons) and Iconolatry (idolatric adoration of icons).

[back to St. Peter's shrine...]
Constantine undertook building his basilica over the existing shrine, in first half of 4th century. 

  Before building could even begin it was first necessary to bury the southern portion of the existing necropolis, in order to create a sizeable platform on which to erect the new structure...the importance of Peter as the ‘rock’ on which the Christian Church was to be constructed... developed the ideology of Peter and Paul replacing Romulus and Remus as Rome's special guardians,

[Pilgrims = tourism]