There are very few places on earth which could be said to belonging to God more than they do to us mortals. India has quite a lot of such cities cutting across religious lines. In case of Europe if ever there was a city which could be called thus then it must be Vatican City or as the Catholics call it the 'Holy See'. It was to this reverent city of God that i headed to next on my EuroTrip
December 28, 2009, Monday
Vatican City sits deep in the heart of Rome like a pearl resting within an oyster. Its as if the City of God lies inside the den of mortals who both protect as well as revere it. As i walk across the Chilly Roman streets early in the morning i am seized by the excitement of the impending day as well as the trepidation of the notorious queues at the Vatican Museum. So much is the notoriety of the queues that i start my march at 6 in the morning despite the fact that the museum doors open only at 8.
The Roman street stopped suddenly in front of the enormous Vatican wall as if it dreaded its holy premises. As i began to walk along the Vatican wall the first thing i notice is the enormous height it had. Also the signage on the wall was written in Latin and not Italian. Of course i thought, after all Latin - the great classical language of the west - was the official language of Vatican. It is the only place on earth where the grand old dead language is still kept alive albeit as part of tradition.
The wall led me to the entrance of the Vatican museum. Thankfully there was no queue yet as i was the first person to arrive on that day. Now, the problem with arriving first is that you don't know where the queue is! So i meandered my way around the entrance searching for any indications for a queue and found none. Finally i got to know where the queue started from a helpful security person and stood there. Because of my early arrival i had to wait for almost 2 hours for the museum doors to open. As i stood waiting patiently i could not help but notice the beautiful entrance door made of stone. It was pink in color which went well with the color of the Walls and had statues of Michelangelo and Raphael mounted on top. That was quite an intelligent selection i thought as no two individuals had done more for the artistic glory of the Vatican as these two and richly deserved to be ordained at the entrance welcoming guests.
Finally after two hours of wait the doors of the museum were thrown open. As i entered i was struck by the very modern lobby which had state of the art facilities. It reminded me of the Louvre which also had an old exterior but a very modern lobby. As i mumbled my broken Italian i got the ticket which was a work of art in itself. It had the figures of Aristotle and Plato taken from Raphael's famous painting - School of Athens- printed on its rear. A remarkable ticket indeed.
The Vatican Museum is one of the oldest and biggest art museums in the world matched only by the Louvre in Paris. If the French kings patronized the Louvre , the Vatican museum owes its collections to the Roman Catholic church and the 266 popes who have headed it for the last two thousand years. The popes were on par if not higher than the other kings in terms of power and wealth. The mortal kings reigned over a piece of earth whereas the popes claimed to rule the entire earth and even beyond.
On entering the Museum i first headed to the main courtyard with its beautifully kept garden which gleaned in the early morning sun. The best part of the courtyard was the sight of the dome of St. Peter's which peeked ever so slightly above the walls of the courtyard. It was a sight to behold even at such a far distance. Next i headed inside to some really magnificent corridors. Each corridor or sections of it was dedicated to a certain pope who had accumulated all the wonderful art work he could muster. The artworks ranged from statues from classical Greece to those of the Roman period and surprisingly were in pretty good shape considering how old they were. Also each of these corridors had exquisitly painted walls and cielings by renowned artists. The themes were mostly biblical and were clear and beautiful even though they were hundreds of years old.
As i moved from one corridor to another my eyes were having a tough time keeping pace with the magnificent views on offer. Suddenly i entered another corridor , however this one was filled with a beautiful array of Tapestries again dealing with biblical themes. I wondered what it must have been for these popes to live in such a wonderful atmosphere. One corridor led to another and this corridor was interestingly called the 'Room of Maps'. True to its name its walls were adorned with maps of various places. Rome to start with and then the various regions of Italy and then Italy and its various islands and so on. A Pope who was obsessed with maps must have commissioned this room i thought.
As i said earlier Raphael was one of the great artists who worked almost exclusively at the Vatican. His work is so much extensive that there are several rooms painted by him and are eponymously called as the 'Raphael rooms'. The Rooms were just brilliant and were supreme examples of high Renaissance art. The themes were much more wider here ranging from stories and characters of the classical age to the modern catholic period. What astounded me most was the level of detail that seemed to be present in each and every painting. Even though the paintings looked similar they were individually very different and unique.
One of the rooms contained Raphael's most famous work - the School of Athens, the painting reproduced on the ticket. This remarkable painting is set in an imaginary time and space and depicts a bunch of famous Greeks who were present at various times during the great Classical age in the city of Athens. The place though imaginary resembled the inside of St.Peter's. It had the who's who of the Classical age. In the center the philosophers Plato and Aristotle were depicted with Pythagoras standing alone drawing his triangles , Euclid too was present with his circles teaching geometry to his students, Socrates too was arguing with a fellow philosopher, Zoroaster was also present with a globe in his hand, Diogenes the cynic was lying on the ground as usual disappointed with the world around. The Entire painting was mesmerizing and transported me to the Athens of the great classical age. Next I went through a collection of ancient sculptures and artworks from ancient Rome and also a great Egyptian collection which included a 3000 year old mummy.
Finally it was time to head to the crowning glory of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, the private chapel of the Pope himself. Chapel's are an essential part of the layout of any Roman catholic church. Its like a church within a church dedicated to saints and patrons. However the Sistine chapel is unique in the way that it is more elaborate and famous than any individual church in the world. As i enter within what hits me first is the avalanche of frescoes that greet the eyes. The frescoes are everywhere, on the walls , cieling and also on the main alter. Each and every freesco is a work of supreme art. Michealangelo's genius drips from each and every fresco. It is interesting that all his life Michaelangelo thought of himself as a sculpture, in fact untill he painted the sistine chapel he was primarily a sculpture, however today most people in the world remember him as a great painter! When Michaelangelo was given the commision first he actually thought that it was a conspiracy by the church which wanted to prove him as a failure, however after years of sheer effort and genius Michaelangelo proved to the world what a gifted artist he was.
As i stared at the cieling above it was a feast to my eyes. The frescoes depicted scenes from the bible and except for a small patch in the middle were contigous. Each scene was so beautifully rendered and the richness of color was so appealing to the eyes. As the eyes shifted their gaze from the cieling to the main alter the view was even more spectacular. The alter had the painting of the Judgement day and the whole scene was breath taking. The Sistine chapel is where the popes pray and also the place where they are elected. This must be one buzzing place during the papal election - the famous Il Conclave - i thought to myself.
As i came out of the museum i felt a bit dazed after viewing all those impressive artworks. It was as if i had stepped out from another world. It was now time to go to the heart of the Vatican - St. Peter's Basilica. As i walked along the road towards St.Peter's the magnificent collonades of the St.Peter's square came into view. The collonodes and the Square were built by Bernini and the great artist wanted his enormous square to be sheilded in a ring of collonades so that the vistor emerges through the collonades and is surprised by the vast expanse of the square. The artist's surprise worked as i emerged through the collonades my breath was taken away by the magnificent Square of St.Peters. Its difficult to explain how big the square really is. The mass of humanity assembled there looked like honey bees in a honey comb. The square sloped ever so slightly towards the center and at the center stood a magnificent Obelisque. As i approached the obilisque the first of the two fountains came into view. The square actually is not a square its an ellipse and there are two fountains placed at the two focal points. These two fountains are designed by Bernini again and if you actually stand at one of the fountains and face the nearest section of the collonades the circular collonades actually seem to be in a straight line. The view of the square from the Obelisque was beautiful. The collonades encircled the square as if like a hand drawing the faithful to the bosom of Chirstendom. And at the head of the square was the great St.Peter's Basilica, the center of Christendom itself.
St.Peter's church is built on top of a mound where St.Peter was crucified and buried. It was the time of early Christendom in Rome which was still very much a pagan city and Christianity , a new religion of the slaves. St.Peter had come to Rome to spread the message of Christ, however he was captured , tortured and finally crucified much like Christ but head over heals and buried in this desolate mound. However times changed and Rome adopted Christianity and St.Peter was revered now and the new centre of Christianity demanded a befitting Church. Thus in the 1500s this magnificent church came into existance which was designed by Bramante. As i entered the Basilica the first thing i noticed was the sheer area of the interior. It almost looked as expansive as the square outside.
St.Peter's is really the most magnificent church in the world. You can imagine the way the Roman catholic church would have poured all its wealth and commissioned the greatest artists of that time to work on the church. And the result is there to see. As i enter, the main alter of the church came into view encased in Bernini's gigantic copper baldacchino. The Alter in fact refers the exact place under neath which St.Peter is buried. and the baldacchino encases it and Michaelangelo's great dome hover's almost mid air on top of the baldacchino. The effect was so overwhelming that its difficult to put it in words. The word 'small' did not exist within the basilica. Everything seemed so large and enormous. Even minor chapels were as big as some decent sized church. Each chapel was a magnificent work of art with superb sculptures and paintings.
Seeing the magnificence of the chappel i imagined what it must be during an actual mass. It must be some atmosphere as the Pope enters this magnificent basillica and stands over the alter and delivers his message. It must be one of the great places of the earth to deliver sermons. The most fascinating moment for me was standing underneath the great dome. The dome was constructed by Michealangelo and at that time was the largest domes in the world. A dome of its size had not been attempted after building the Pantheon. Still Michealangelo took up the challenge and built this magnificent doom.
After standing underneath the dome it was time to go to its top. After an hour in the queue and 350 steps i was on my way to the top of the dome. The climb was fascinating as with every rung of the spiraling staircase the space inside became narrower and narrower and finally after what seemed i was on top of the dome. The view from there was simply unreal. The enormous St.Peter's square was visible in all its glory and the thousands who had thronged it were also visible. The colonnades with there impeccably crafted statues were also visible. The exertion of the climb was replaced by sheer exhilaration. As i looked afar i could see other roman attractions. Straight from the square i could see the dreaded Castle Angelo papal fortress with the magnificent bridge of angels over the Tiber leading to it. Also visible was the Vatican Museum that i had traveled in the morning and the papal offices. The great Tiber river was also visible snaking through the city. The City of Rome looked truly beautiful from the dome and i was feeling so lucky that i had been here.
As i got down from the dome and exited the basilica into the square i felt a strange dizziness in my head. The like of which you experience after experiencing something so momentous. I had always dreamed of coming here and the dream had finally come true. The City of God had truly lived up to its Godly reputation.
December 28, 2009, Monday
Vatican City sits deep in the heart of Rome like a pearl resting within an oyster. Its as if the City of God lies inside the den of mortals who both protect as well as revere it. As i walk across the Chilly Roman streets early in the morning i am seized by the excitement of the impending day as well as the trepidation of the notorious queues at the Vatican Museum. So much is the notoriety of the queues that i start my march at 6 in the morning despite the fact that the museum doors open only at 8.
The Roman street stopped suddenly in front of the enormous Vatican wall as if it dreaded its holy premises. As i began to walk along the Vatican wall the first thing i notice is the enormous height it had. Also the signage on the wall was written in Latin and not Italian. Of course i thought, after all Latin - the great classical language of the west - was the official language of Vatican. It is the only place on earth where the grand old dead language is still kept alive albeit as part of tradition.
The wall led me to the entrance of the Vatican museum. Thankfully there was no queue yet as i was the first person to arrive on that day. Now, the problem with arriving first is that you don't know where the queue is! So i meandered my way around the entrance searching for any indications for a queue and found none. Finally i got to know where the queue started from a helpful security person and stood there. Because of my early arrival i had to wait for almost 2 hours for the museum doors to open. As i stood waiting patiently i could not help but notice the beautiful entrance door made of stone. It was pink in color which went well with the color of the Walls and had statues of Michelangelo and Raphael mounted on top. That was quite an intelligent selection i thought as no two individuals had done more for the artistic glory of the Vatican as these two and richly deserved to be ordained at the entrance welcoming guests.
Finally after two hours of wait the doors of the museum were thrown open. As i entered i was struck by the very modern lobby which had state of the art facilities. It reminded me of the Louvre which also had an old exterior but a very modern lobby. As i mumbled my broken Italian i got the ticket which was a work of art in itself. It had the figures of Aristotle and Plato taken from Raphael's famous painting - School of Athens- printed on its rear. A remarkable ticket indeed.
The Vatican Museum is one of the oldest and biggest art museums in the world matched only by the Louvre in Paris. If the French kings patronized the Louvre , the Vatican museum owes its collections to the Roman Catholic church and the 266 popes who have headed it for the last two thousand years. The popes were on par if not higher than the other kings in terms of power and wealth. The mortal kings reigned over a piece of earth whereas the popes claimed to rule the entire earth and even beyond.
On entering the Museum i first headed to the main courtyard with its beautifully kept garden which gleaned in the early morning sun. The best part of the courtyard was the sight of the dome of St. Peter's which peeked ever so slightly above the walls of the courtyard. It was a sight to behold even at such a far distance. Next i headed inside to some really magnificent corridors. Each corridor or sections of it was dedicated to a certain pope who had accumulated all the wonderful art work he could muster. The artworks ranged from statues from classical Greece to those of the Roman period and surprisingly were in pretty good shape considering how old they were. Also each of these corridors had exquisitly painted walls and cielings by renowned artists. The themes were mostly biblical and were clear and beautiful even though they were hundreds of years old.
As i moved from one corridor to another my eyes were having a tough time keeping pace with the magnificent views on offer. Suddenly i entered another corridor , however this one was filled with a beautiful array of Tapestries again dealing with biblical themes. I wondered what it must have been for these popes to live in such a wonderful atmosphere. One corridor led to another and this corridor was interestingly called the 'Room of Maps'. True to its name its walls were adorned with maps of various places. Rome to start with and then the various regions of Italy and then Italy and its various islands and so on. A Pope who was obsessed with maps must have commissioned this room i thought.
As i said earlier Raphael was one of the great artists who worked almost exclusively at the Vatican. His work is so much extensive that there are several rooms painted by him and are eponymously called as the 'Raphael rooms'. The Rooms were just brilliant and were supreme examples of high Renaissance art. The themes were much more wider here ranging from stories and characters of the classical age to the modern catholic period. What astounded me most was the level of detail that seemed to be present in each and every painting. Even though the paintings looked similar they were individually very different and unique.
One of the rooms contained Raphael's most famous work - the School of Athens, the painting reproduced on the ticket. This remarkable painting is set in an imaginary time and space and depicts a bunch of famous Greeks who were present at various times during the great Classical age in the city of Athens. The place though imaginary resembled the inside of St.Peter's. It had the who's who of the Classical age. In the center the philosophers Plato and Aristotle were depicted with Pythagoras standing alone drawing his triangles , Euclid too was present with his circles teaching geometry to his students, Socrates too was arguing with a fellow philosopher, Zoroaster was also present with a globe in his hand, Diogenes the cynic was lying on the ground as usual disappointed with the world around. The Entire painting was mesmerizing and transported me to the Athens of the great classical age. Next I went through a collection of ancient sculptures and artworks from ancient Rome and also a great Egyptian collection which included a 3000 year old mummy.Finally it was time to head to the crowning glory of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, the private chapel of the Pope himself. Chapel's are an essential part of the layout of any Roman catholic church. Its like a church within a church dedicated to saints and patrons. However the Sistine chapel is unique in the way that it is more elaborate and famous than any individual church in the world. As i enter within what hits me first is the avalanche of frescoes that greet the eyes. The frescoes are everywhere, on the walls , cieling and also on the main alter. Each and every freesco is a work of supreme art. Michealangelo's genius drips from each and every fresco. It is interesting that all his life Michaelangelo thought of himself as a sculpture, in fact untill he painted the sistine chapel he was primarily a sculpture, however today most people in the world remember him as a great painter! When Michaelangelo was given the commision first he actually thought that it was a conspiracy by the church which wanted to prove him as a failure, however after years of sheer effort and genius Michaelangelo proved to the world what a gifted artist he was.
As i stared at the cieling above it was a feast to my eyes. The frescoes depicted scenes from the bible and except for a small patch in the middle were contigous. Each scene was so beautifully rendered and the richness of color was so appealing to the eyes. As the eyes shifted their gaze from the cieling to the main alter the view was even more spectacular. The alter had the painting of the Judgement day and the whole scene was breath taking. The Sistine chapel is where the popes pray and also the place where they are elected. This must be one buzzing place during the papal election - the famous Il Conclave - i thought to myself.
As i came out of the museum i felt a bit dazed after viewing all those impressive artworks. It was as if i had stepped out from another world. It was now time to go to the heart of the Vatican - St. Peter's Basilica. As i walked along the road towards St.Peter's the magnificent collonades of the St.Peter's square came into view. The collonodes and the Square were built by Bernini and the great artist wanted his enormous square to be sheilded in a ring of collonades so that the vistor emerges through the collonades and is surprised by the vast expanse of the square. The artist's surprise worked as i emerged through the collonades my breath was taken away by the magnificent Square of St.Peters. Its difficult to explain how big the square really is. The mass of humanity assembled there looked like honey bees in a honey comb. The square sloped ever so slightly towards the center and at the center stood a magnificent Obelisque. As i approached the obilisque the first of the two fountains came into view. The square actually is not a square its an ellipse and there are two fountains placed at the two focal points. These two fountains are designed by Bernini again and if you actually stand at one of the fountains and face the nearest section of the collonades the circular collonades actually seem to be in a straight line. The view of the square from the Obelisque was beautiful. The collonades encircled the square as if like a hand drawing the faithful to the bosom of Chirstendom. And at the head of the square was the great St.Peter's Basilica, the center of Christendom itself.
St.Peter's church is built on top of a mound where St.Peter was crucified and buried. It was the time of early Christendom in Rome which was still very much a pagan city and Christianity , a new religion of the slaves. St.Peter had come to Rome to spread the message of Christ, however he was captured , tortured and finally crucified much like Christ but head over heals and buried in this desolate mound. However times changed and Rome adopted Christianity and St.Peter was revered now and the new centre of Christianity demanded a befitting Church. Thus in the 1500s this magnificent church came into existance which was designed by Bramante. As i entered the Basilica the first thing i noticed was the sheer area of the interior. It almost looked as expansive as the square outside.
St.Peter's is really the most magnificent church in the world. You can imagine the way the Roman catholic church would have poured all its wealth and commissioned the greatest artists of that time to work on the church. And the result is there to see. As i enter, the main alter of the church came into view encased in Bernini's gigantic copper baldacchino. The Alter in fact refers the exact place under neath which St.Peter is buried. and the baldacchino encases it and Michaelangelo's great dome hover's almost mid air on top of the baldacchino. The effect was so overwhelming that its difficult to put it in words. The word 'small' did not exist within the basilica. Everything seemed so large and enormous. Even minor chapels were as big as some decent sized church. Each chapel was a magnificent work of art with superb sculptures and paintings.
Seeing the magnificence of the chappel i imagined what it must be during an actual mass. It must be some atmosphere as the Pope enters this magnificent basillica and stands over the alter and delivers his message. It must be one of the great places of the earth to deliver sermons. The most fascinating moment for me was standing underneath the great dome. The dome was constructed by Michealangelo and at that time was the largest domes in the world. A dome of its size had not been attempted after building the Pantheon. Still Michealangelo took up the challenge and built this magnificent doom.
After standing underneath the dome it was time to go to its top. After an hour in the queue and 350 steps i was on my way to the top of the dome. The climb was fascinating as with every rung of the spiraling staircase the space inside became narrower and narrower and finally after what seemed i was on top of the dome. The view from there was simply unreal. The enormous St.Peter's square was visible in all its glory and the thousands who had thronged it were also visible. The colonnades with there impeccably crafted statues were also visible. The exertion of the climb was replaced by sheer exhilaration. As i looked afar i could see other roman attractions. Straight from the square i could see the dreaded Castle Angelo papal fortress with the magnificent bridge of angels over the Tiber leading to it. Also visible was the Vatican Museum that i had traveled in the morning and the papal offices. The great Tiber river was also visible snaking through the city. The City of Rome looked truly beautiful from the dome and i was feeling so lucky that i had been here.
As i got down from the dome and exited the basilica into the square i felt a strange dizziness in my head. The like of which you experience after experiencing something so momentous. I had always dreamed of coming here and the dream had finally come true. The City of God had truly lived up to its Godly reputation.
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