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Rome » San Pietro in Vincoli

Inside the church
(a photo by Nico)

The church San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains) is not among the Roman churches you can miss. If you think it is the next church in the row and it is not worth to walk to it from the Coliseum, you are definitely wrong. This Christian temple keeps an amazing statue and a mournful relic. According to the legend the church was built in 442 AD exactly on the place where four centurie before that, during the prosecutions of Christians by Emperor Nero, Saint Peter was given a death sentence. Initially the structure was thought to be a small temple keeping the chains (vincoli) with which Saint Peter was chained in Jerusalem. This precious relic was given to Pope Leo I by the Empress Eudokia, wife of the Roman Emperor Valentinian III. Soon after that other chains, considered to be the ones with which Saint Peter was chained in Rome, were brought to Constantinopolis (Constantinople), the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. These chains ideally fitted with the first ones when put together. Today you cans see the both set of chains, kept together in a casket under the main altar.

The statue of Moses
(a photo by davidllada)

In the upper end of the right transept you will see a more convincing prospect. This is the impressive statue of Moses by Michelangelo, created between 1513 and 1515. It is one of the 42 figures thought to decorate the tomb of Pope Julius II in the Basilica of St. Peter. Michelangelo called this tomb "a real tragedy" as he had been engaged with its decoration for long days. Eventually only this statue and some other fragments were accomplished. Julius II sent Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and after the pope died no of his inheritors willed to give money for the finishing of his tomb. When eventually finished in 1542 - 1545, the tomb was to a very large scale reduced in comparison with the original plans of Michelangelo and placed in the San Pietro in Vincoli Church where Pope Julius II had been a cardinal.

With the mighty and spiritual statue of Moses Michelangelo created one of his greatest masterpieces. He portrayed the prophet in the moment when he was receiving the tables with The Ten Commandments of God on the Sinai Mountains. The cornicles on the Moses's head are in fact the rays of light, with which he was often depicted in the medieval art. If you take a closer look at the beard of the prophet you will notice the hardly perceptible but clear signature of Michelangelo. The enormous strength of this figure, the tension you can see in its veins and its muscles, the posture and the furious expression, have rightly lined this statue of Moses between the most admired masterpieces of all times.