st. peter's basilica by the numbers
Saturday, December 8, 2012 at 12:25PM Year construction began: 1506
Year it ended: 1626
Total years it took to build: 120
Number of popes who reigned during this time: 21
Age of Michelangelo when he took over as superintendent of the building program at St. Peter's: in his 70s
Cost to build: 46,800,052 ducats
Year Pope Pius XII announced, in a radio broadcast to the world, the discovery of St. Peter's tomb under the Basilica: 1950
Height of the letters inscribed in the dome, which read, TV ES PETRVS ET SVPER HANC PETRAM AEDIFICABO ECCLESIAM MEAM. TIBI DABO CLAVES REGNI CAELORVM (...you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church...I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…): 2 meters
Number of tombs within the Basilica: over 100
Year the Basilica's oldest bell dates to: 1288
Length: 730 feet
Width: 500 feet
Height (max): 452 feet
Dome, diameter (outer): 137.7 feet
Total area covered: 5.7 acres (roughly 5 soccer fields)
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