You stand here in the great square of
St. Peter's, looking northwest. The church, the largest and most
magnificent church in the world, stands off at your left, holding the
cross on its dome 435 feet above this pavement. Another
colonnade, just like this one you see before you, is curving around
behind you; the two enclose the vast square here before this
church. You have to look and look again before you really take
in the full magnificence of those pillars - compare their size with
that of the horses near them and they begin to show for what they are.
The building you see above the colonnade is a small part of the
Vatican - an especially interesting part because it is that in which
the Pope lives. Beyond this, out of sight at this moment,
stretch out other enormous buildings which are also part of the
Vatican - the libraries, picture galleries, the museums of statuary
full of treasures whose value is beyond any estimate in money.
There is one room in the library a fifth of a mile long, lined with
cases containing precious books and ancient manuscripts. The
whole palace contains eleven thousand rooms and halls of various
sorts, and though travelers become worn out trying to explore the
rooms graciously opened to them, the greater part of the stupendous
building is reserved for the use of the Head of the Church and
cardinals who share with him the spiritual cares of Christendom.
This obelisk of stone was brought over to Rome from Egypt by the
heathen emperor Caligula, almost nineteen hundred years ago. He
became emperor only a few years after the Crucifixion of the Master at
Jerusalem. (Jerusalem itself is about 1500 miles away straight
off at your right.)
See Rome through the Stereoscope, published by Underwood &
Underwood.
The Vatican.
Residence of the Pope - Rome
