7 be principal buildings of the modern Capitol consist of three work of Michel Angelo, forming three sides of a square, : middle of which stands the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurellua. The open aide faces the north-west towards the modern city. The palace facing It is that of the senator of Rome ; to the left of it is the palace de'Conserntori, which is filled with collections of pictures, statues, and objeots of verth, among which is the famous bronze wolf of the Capitol mentioned by Cicero in his third • Catali narian Oration ; ' and to the right the Capitoline Museum, one of the finest collections of statues and eculptures in Italy. Among the treasures of this museum are the celebrated Dying Gladiator, and the Antinolis and the Faun from Hadrian's villa. The three palaces and the square between occupy the intermontium, the two summits being occupied by the church of Ara Cceli and the palace and gardens of Caffarelli. Two ways lead down by the senatorial palace into the Campo Vaccine, or ancient Forum, one of which passes the site of the Mamertine prison.
'IL The third great division of modern Rome lies on the right bank of the Tiber, and consists of two distinct parts : II Berge, or Vatican, and Trastevere, properly so called, which are divided from one another by an inner wall. The Berge, or Cittb, Leonine, extends from the bridge of St. Angelo to the Piazza of St. Peter's. The Vatican Mount was outside the walls of ancient Rome, and originally within the territory of Etruria. In the plain between the hill and the Tiber Caligula constructed a circus for chariot-races, which was the scene of the martyrdom of many of the early Christians. Nero fixed au obelisk in the middle of it, the same which now stands before Si. Peter's. This circus, being afterwards used by Nero, was called by his name. Nero had also gardens in the same neighbourhood. The circus was destroyed under Constantine, who built on its site a church or basi lica, dedicated to St. Peter, who, according to tradition, was buried on that spot. This church was consecrated by Pope Sylvester I., and enriched by Constantine with splendid ornaments and ample revenues.
Pope Leo IV., about A.D. 850, walled round part of the Vatican Hill and the plain beneath, to protect the church of .St. Peter against the incursions of the Saracens, and he gave the uninclosed grounds to a number of Corsican families, which, having been driven from their country by the Saracens, had taken refuge at Rome. It then became a suburb of Rome, and was called Leonine. Civitas. In 1146 Euge nics Ill. began building a palace near the church of St. Peter for the Papal residence, which grew by degrees, under successive popes, into an immense mass of buildings, known by the general name of the Vatican. The Lateran palace had been formerly the residence of the popes. Gregory XI., on his return from Avignon, fixed his permanent residence in the Vatican on account of the protection of the neighbour- • ing castle of St. Angelo. The palace of the Vatican continued to be the residence of the popes until about the middle of the 16th century, when Paul III. built the palace on the Quirinal Mount, which, on
account of its healthier and purer air, has since been preferred to the Vatican, which is however occasionally used as a winter residence, as well as on the occasion of grand ceremonies being performed in St. Peter's, when the Pope removes to the Vatican to be near at hand.
The old church of St. Peter was a large structure, more than 300 feet in length : it lay lower than the present church, which has been raised above it, and which is much larger. Part of the ancient church is become a subterraneous vault under the pavement of the modern building : it contains chapels and altars, with old monuments, sculp tures, and mosaics, and the public have access to it on certain days only.
Pope Julius II. commissioned the architect Bramante to make a plan of a new church. The plan of Bramante was a Latin cross, sur mounted by a vast and lofty dome. Julius II. himself laid the first stone on the 18th of April, 1506. Bramante raised the enormous pillars which support the cupola. After the death of Julius and Bramante, Leo X. entrusted the work first to Giulio di San Gallo and to Raphael d'Urbino, who was an architect as well as a painter ; and afterwards to Peruzzi, who altered Bramaute'a plan into that of a Greek cross, but effected little towards its execution. After Peruzzi'a death, Pope Paul III. sent for Michel Angelo, who carried forward the works with his characteristic energy, raised the drum of the cupola, covered over the body of the church, and cased the inside with atone. After the death of Michel Angelo, his pupil Barozzi, or Vignola, continued the building, and cased the exterior with travertino. He died in 1573, and little more was done till 1585, when Sixtus V. resolved that the dome should be finished, and commissioned Domenico Fontana and Giacomo della Porta, who, after making the necessary plans and arrangements, began the work in July, 1588. It was carried on night and day ; 600 workmen were employed on it; and in May 1590 the last stone, after being solemnly blessed by the Pope, was fixed iu its place at the sound of a discharge of cannon from the castle of St. Angelo. By the following November the crowning of the dome was completed. Paul V. (Borghese) being elected Pope in 1605, appointed Carlo Madera() to be architect of St. Peters, who lengthened the nave of the church so as to give it the shape of a Latin cross. He then built the portico, which was finished in six years, and was open to the public in 1612. Two years later the whole structure was completed. Sixtus V. and his architect Fontana had already raised the obelisk before; the church. Paul V., and after him Innocent, constructed the two magnificent fountains by the sides of it; and Alexander VII. began in 1661 the two semicircular colonnades which inclose the Piazza, or open area, in front of the church. Beruini was the architect of this last work, which was finished in 1667. Lastly, Pius VI. built the fine Sacrietia and Chapter-house which adjoin the church.