St. Peter's Basilica is the second stop we will be visiting. It is located in Vatican City, where the pope lives. The church begun under construction in 1506 and was finished around 1626, it exhibits Renaissance architecture, and famous renaissance artists helped built the many religious works inside the Basilica. St. Peter's Basilica is named after St. Peter, one of Jesus's twelve disciples who is believed to be buried underneath the church. St. Peter was also the first Bishop of Rome, and the church is a sacred site and symbol of Christianity. The inside contains chapels and sculptures, many feel as if being inside makes you feel almost ethereal. According to Deyemi Akande, a current “recipient of the H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship” who traveled to the Basilica, exclaims "This is what St Peter’s Basilica will do to even the most restrained of beings, it reaches deep into your place of concealed emotion and brings out a measure of reality in you. I must have said ‘wow’ a hundred times in the twenty-two minutes or so I spent staring and not yielding to the light jostling by the crowd around me." The church was helped built by famous Renaissance artists like Michelangelo, who built the "Pieta", Bernini and Antonio Canova, who made the statue of Pope Pius VI.


Churches like this helped artists put their skills and talent into the beautiful and well-sculpted art of the Renaissance. Religious works were possibly one of the main focuses of art during the Renaissance. During the middle ages, religious artworks were barely made, churches were not as advanced and the architecture was not as detailed and intricate as the Basilica. Especially with Florence's strike in wealth after the middle ages, they were able to put much more materials into the Basilica looking like a holy and sacred place. If it was built today based on the value of gold, it would cost almost 5.4 billion dollars USD.