Lesa Baldwin, age 12, of Barre, Vt., for her question:
WHERE IS THE LARGEST CHRISTIAN CHURCH?
Largest Christian church in the world is Saint Peter's in Vatican City. It is also called Saint Peter's Basilica.
It is hard to believe, but Saint Peter's can hold over 50,000 persons at one time. The church is built in the shape of a cross. One section is almost 700 feet long and about 450 feet across at its widest part.
Saint Peter's nave or center aisle is 150 feet high. The building's most outstanding architectural feature is the magnificent dome, designed by Michelangelo. The dome rises more than 400 feet from the floor of the church and measures 138 feet in diameter.
The present Saint Peter's is the second church to stand above the tomb which is believed to contain the body of Saint Peter, the first pope. The first church, called the Basilica of Constantine, was begun by Constantine the Great about 325. He built the church to symbolize his acceptance of Christianity.
The church was modeled on the basilica, a rectangular building used as a meeting hail by the Romans. Four rows of columns, extending almost the length of the church, divided it into a nave with two aisles on either side.
In 1506, Pope Julius II decided to rebuild the church completely. He demolished the original church and only the tomb and a few small details of this church remain.
Rebuilding Saint Peter's took almost 150 years. During this time, 10 different architects worked on the church and changed its design. The first architect was Donato Bramante. He designed a domed, perfectly symmetrical church in the form of a Greek cross, or a cross with four arms of equal length. But the nave was lengthened in the 1600s so that the church took the form of a Latin cross. Only the gigantic scale and dimensions of Bramante's work remain.
The most important architects were Michelangelo and Bernini.
Michelangelo became the church's architect in the 1540s when he was over 70 years old. He changed Bramante's plan for a balanced and restful dome into a dynamic construction. Michelangelo put a drum or ring at the base of the dome that appears to be squeezing the dome and forcing its sides to spring upwards.
Bernini began his work on Saint Peter's in 1623. He gave the church an impressive setting. From a distance, the church appears to be set on a stage. An avenue one mile long leads from the Tiber River to a piazza called the Square of Saint Peter, a large open space in front of the church. Double colonnades. are arranged in semicircles on two sides of the piazza.
A red granite obelisk or shaft stands 85 feet high in the piazza's center. It was brought to Rome from Egypt in about A.D. 37 and was moved to the piazza in 1586.
The magnificent building was dedicated in 1626 by Pope Urban VIII, but other parts were added later.