Places
The wide façade of St Peter’s Basilica, with Michelangelo’s dome rising behind it.
The main façade. Photo: Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Place · Pilgrimage site

St Peter's Basilica

The great Renaissance church of the Vatican, built over the place venerated as the grave of the apostle Peter. It is not a cathedral: the Pope's cathedral is St John Lateran.

Location
Vatican City, Rome, Vatican City State
Building
Papal major basilica (not a cathedral)
Tradition
Roman Catholic
Religious use
In use as a papal basilica. Its altar is reserved for the Pope and his delegates.
Official website
Basilica di San Pietro

Map Building location: Apple Maps · Google Maps — the building, not a confirmed visitor entrance.

It is the principal church of papal ceremonies and one of the most visited pilgrimage churches in the world. Pilgrims come above all to the grave venerated as that of Peter, beneath the high altar. Because the bishop's chair of Rome is in the Archbasilica of St John Lateran, St Peter's is a basilica but not a cathedral.

In the Atlas

Each paragraph says whether it is documented history, a tradition handed down, or disputed.

  • Tradition

    Early Christian tradition holds that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero and buried on the Vatican Hill. A Roman writer of about 200, Gaius, already speaks of the apostle's 'trophy' on the Vatican.

  • Documented

    Constantine built the first basilica over the site in the fourth century. The present church was begun on 18 April 1506 under Pope Julius II and finished in 1615; Pope Urban VIII dedicated it on 18 November 1626. Bramante, Michelangelo and Maderno were its principal designers.

  • Disputed

    Excavations beneath the basilica in the 1940s found a Roman cemetery and a second-century monument. In 1968 Pope Paul VI said that bones found there had been identified in a way the Church considered convincing; scholars continue to debate the identification.

Editorial draft. Some sources below were read (Wikipedia and Wikidata) and the text was corrected against them; others were located but could not be read, so the profile stays a draft.

  • Reference work · Located, not read

    Saint Peter's Basilica — Encyclopaedia Britannica

    Address confirmed on 28 Oct 2026 (it is indexed for this subject); the page itself could not be opened in this session, so no statement here has been checked against it.

  • Primary source · Located, not read

    Ecclesiastical History, book 2, chapter 25 (quoting Gaius of Rome) — Eusebius of Caesarea

    The early reference to Peter's 'trophy' on the Vatican. Not read in this session.

  • Official source · Located, not read

    Vatican City — UNESCO World Heritage Centre

    Address confirmed on 28 Oct 2026 (it is indexed for this subject); the page itself could not be opened in this session, so no statement here has been checked against it.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    St. Peter's Basilica — Wikipedia (English)

    Read on 28 Oct 2026 at revision 1379781431, fetched by the research workflow (research/fetched/places/st-peters-basilica/wikipedia.txt). A general reference work, not a scholarly source; the statements here were checked against it.

  • Reference work · Read in a build session

    Wikidata item Q12512 (St. Peter's Basilica) — Wikidata

    Read on 28 Oct 2026: instance of, religion, diocese, coordinates and official website.