PRODUCTIONS: ST. PETER

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Ingo Langner

SD Cinematografica - Provobis

52'

SD

Today's St. Peter Cathedral is not only the largest, but also the most important and most visited church in Christendom. It replaces the old St. Peter's Basilica built under the Roman Emperor Constantine between 319 and 322. Architectural digs in 1940-49 showed that the Roman Christian community worshiped at the grave of the Apostle Peter as long ago as the middle of the 2nd century, but probably from the outset. No Peter's grave, no San Peter in Vatican. Because this is where the Emperor Constantine started this tradition of worshiping a Peter's grave, as he had the first Basilica built on the Vatican hill. Peter's grave is situated in a necropolis still maintained to this day beneath St. Peter's, which also holds the elaborate tombs of Roman nobility. The grave is in precisely the same place where today the papal altar stands.