Description

The Papal Basilica of St.

Peter in the Vatican is an Italian Renaissance church in Vatican City, the papal enclave within the city of Rome.

Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St.

Peter's is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and one of the largest churches in the world.

While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, St.

Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines.

It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world" and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom".

Catholic tradition holds that the Basilica is the burial site of St.

Peter, one of Christ's Apostles and also the first Pope; supposedly, St.

Peter's tomb is directly below the high altar of the Basilica.

For this reason, many Popes have been interred at St.

Peter's since the Early Christian period.