★★★★★ 5.0
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Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli
The year is 1515, and Michelangelo raises his hammer... WHACK! He smacks his Moses statue, yelling "Speak to me!" That's how real this 8-foot marble giant looked! As you climb up to this brick church from the 400s, you're walking over Roman baths underneath. Inside, Moses has horns from a silly translation mistake! Under the altar, hunt for chains that magically fused together!
Did You Know?
- The Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli is home to one of the most famous sculptures in the world: Michelangelo’s 'Moses,' created for the unfinished tomb of Pope Julius II. The statue is renowned for its powerful depiction of Moses with 'horns'—a symbolic representation of divine radiance, based on a mistranslation in the Latin Bible, and stands as a masterpiece of Renaissance art right inside this unassuming church.
- Beneath the main altar, visitors can see what are believed to be the actual chains that bound St. Peter during his imprisonment in Jerusalem and Rome. According to legend, when these two sets of chains—one from Jerusalem and one from Rome—were brought together in the 5th century, they miraculously fused into a single chain, a story celebrated each year on August 1st as the 'Feast of St. Peter in Chains,' when the relics are displayed to the public.
- The basilica’s full name, 'San Pietro in Vincoli' (St. Peter in Chains), comes from these famous relics, but it’s also known as the 'Basilica Eudoxiana' after Empress Eudocia, who commissioned the church in the 5th century to house the chains. The church’s history is intertwined with the politics of the Roman Empire—Eudocia’s daughter, Licinia Eudocia, married Western Emperor Valentinian III, symbolically reuniting the Eastern and Western Roman Empires through this sacred site.