“THOU ART PETER – and upon this rock I will build my church.”
1506 – 2006: 500 years of the New St.Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.

April 18th, 1506 saw the beginning of the end for the 1200-year-old St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican Hill in Rome. For on this day, under the supervision of chief architect Donato Bramante, the foundation stone was laid for a new St. Peter's Cathedral.

In a sequence of bitter power struggles, shattering defeats and glorious triumphs Bramante, Sangallo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Maderno and Bernini created this world-famous center of the Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation might well have taken quite a different course without this building. Like a huge precious shell the dome envelops the humble tomb, buried within its depths, is the Apostle Peter, appointed by Jesus to bear responsibility for the Christian faith.

Written by Axel Radler and Ingo Langner

A film by Ingo Langner