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.
![Thumb](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Rome%2C_Vatican%2C_Italy%2C_Saint_Peter%27s_Square_as_seen_from_Michelangelo_dome.jpg/640px-Rome%2C_Vatican%2C_Italy%2C_Saint_Peter%27s_Square_as_seen_from_Michelangelo_dome.jpg)
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.
References
Further reading
Other websites
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.