Restoration work carried out in preparation for next year’s Jubilee. This is the first complete restoration for this monumental sculpture in the last 250 years.
It’s a facelift for one of the major works of the Vatican. The restoration of the Baldachin of St. Peter’s Basilica has begun in Rome, ahead of next year’s Jubilee. This is the first complete restoration for this monumental bronze sculpture, 29 meters high, and which remains one of Bernini’s most famous creations.
“This intervention is a preparatory restoration for conservation which, we hope, can last another 200 years,” explains Alberto Capitanucci, Engineer, and head of the technical department of the Fabrique de Saint-Pierre, “but in reality the last major restoration was carried out 250 years ago.”
The baldachin, which combines bronze with the addition of marble, wood and gilding, is considered one of the most complex works of all time.
Its restoration, which is expected to cost around 700,000 euros, is entirely financed by a Catholic organization based in the United States. It should be completed next November.
The baldachin was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII from the Baroque architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, known as “Bernini”, between 1620 and 1630.