St. Peter's Basilica Crossword Puzzle for Kids

St. Peter's Basilica, which is called "Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano" in Italian, is a large church in Vatican City, an independent country within Rome, Italy. It is often called “the greatest church in Christendom". In Catholic tradition, St. Peter's Basilica is believed to be the burial place of Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. It is believed that Saint Peter was the first Bishop of Rome.

Although the Bible does not say that the apostle Peter went to Rome, other Roman Christians who were alive in the 1st century AD have written about him. Catholics believe that after Peter was killed, his body was buried in a cemetery where the basilica now stands. A tomb has been found below the altar of the basilica, and there were some bones, but no-one can say for certain if they are the bones of St. Peter.

A church was built here in the 4th century AD. The building that stands here now was begun on April 18, 1506 and was finished in 1626. Many Popes have been buried there. Although many people think St. Peter's is a cathedral, it is not, because it does not have a bishop. The pope is the Bishop of Rome, and although he usually uses St. Peter's as his main church, because he lives in the Vatican, his bishop's throne is in a different church, the cathedral of Saint John Lateran. Large important churches like St. Peter's are often called basilicas. There are four ancient basilicas in Rome that were begun by the Emperor Constantine soon after he made Christianity the legal religion of the Roman Empire in the early 4th century AD (300s). The basilicas are St. Peter's Basilica, St. John Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore and St. Paul outside the Walls.

The pope, who lives at the Vatican, often says mass at St. Peter's.

It is said to be the greatest work of architecture of its age.

History

One of the books of the Bible, called the Acts of the Apostles, tells what happened to the disciples of Jesus after he was put to death by crucifixion in the 1st century AD. One of his twelve disciples became the leader. His name was Simon Peter and he was a fisherman from Galilee. Peter became one of the most important people in starting the Christian Church. Another important disciple was Paul of Tarsus, who travelled to many places and wrote lots of letters to teach and to encourage people in the new Christian groups that began to spring up in many different parts of the Roman Empire. St. Paul travelled to Rome. It is believed that St. Peter also travelled to Rome and that both Paul and Peter were put to death there as Christian martyrs. St. Paul was beheaded with a sword. Peter was crucified up-side-down. It is believed that the body of St. Peter was buried in a cemetery near the Via Cornelia, a road leading out of the city, on the hill called Vaticanus. Peter's grave was marked, by a red rock, the symbol of his name. The place where Peter died was marked, in the 1400s, by a little round temple called the "Tempietto" designed by Bramante.

St. Peter is very important in Roman Catholic tradition because Peter is believed to have been the head of the Christian Church in Rome, and so he was the first bishop. The Gospel of Matthew (chapter 16, verse 18) tells that Jesus said these words to Peter:

"And I also say this to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church."

The name Peter means a "rock". The Roman Catholic Church believes that Jesus made Peter the head of the Christian Church, and so all the Bishops of Rome (the Popes) must be the leaders of the Christian Church throughout the whole world. The Protestant and Orthodox churches believe that Jesus was speaking about the important words Peter had just said: "You are the Christ and the Son of the Living God" (Matthew 16:16), and that this Confession of Faith is the rock that the Christian Church is built on.

On December 23, 1950, while making his Christmas radio broadcast to the world, Pope Pius XII announced that Saint Peter's tomb had been discovered. Archaeologists had been searching for ten years in a place under the basilica that had been covered up for about a thousand years. They had found part of a small building dating from soon after St. Peter's death, and some bones, but no-one could be sure if they were the bones of St. Peter.

Architecture

The changing plans for St. Peter's. The architectural terms are explained in the article.

When Pope Julius decided to build the "grandest church in Christendom" the design by Donato Bramante was chosen, and Pope Julius laid the foundation stone in 1506. Bramante's plan was in the shape of an enormous Greek Cross, which means that it had four arms all of equal length, and a large dome at the middle. For the next hundred years, the groundplan got changed backwards and forwards between a "Greek Cross" like Bramante's plan and a "Latin Cross" like the old basilica, but one thing never changed, and that was the idea of having an enormous dome at the place where the two arms crossed.

At that time, there were only three very large domes in the whole world. One was far away in Constantinople on the church of Hagia Sophia and not many people in Italy had seen it. The other two domes were both very well known. One was the dome on the temple to the Ancient Roman gods, called the Pantheon. The other dome was built in the early 15th century (1400s) on Florence Cathedral by Filippo Brunelleschi. The dome of the Pantheon is 43.3 metres (142.06 ft) across and the dome of Florence Cathedral is about 42.1 metres (138 ft), but is much taller. Bramante's plan for the dome of St. Peter's was for it to be about as wide as the dome of Florence, and even taller.

No architect with any sense would try to design a dome without first checking out how these other two domes were made. Bramante checked them out. He discovered that the dome of the Pantheon, which had been standing for nearly 1500 years, was made of concrete. So that the concrete wouldn't be too heavy, it was mixed with pumice stone which comes out of a volcano and is full of gas holes so it is very light weight. Bramante learned how to make concrete like the Ancient Romans.

Bramante's dome was to be like the one on the Pantheon. But there was one very big difference between the Pantheon dome and Bramante's design. The Pantheon's dome stands on a round wall like a drum, with only one doorway in it, but Bramante's dome was designed to stand on a drum, which was standing high up on four wide arches. The aches rested on four enormous piers (pillars of stone). He had got this idea from Florence Cathedral which had an enormous dome resting on eight big piers. Another idea that Bramante got from Florence Cathedral was the design for the little stone tower which sits on top of the dome and is called the lantern.

Treasures

St. Peter's Basilica has many treasures. These include Christian relics, the tombs of popes and many other important people, famous artworks which are mostly sculpture and other interesting things.

Other websites

Circus of Nero and the old and new Basilicas superimposed, showing the tomb of Peter

St Peter's Basilica, Rome pictures and virtual reality movies

Vatican City, Piazza San Pietro VR panorama with map and compass effect by Tolomeus

Vatican City, Piazza San Pietro QTVR panorama hi-res (15 Mb) by Tolomeus

Text adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article “St. Peter's Basilica” (revision 10903197, 2026-06-28), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.