St. Peter's is known by several names. Locally it's called Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano, internationally it's known as the Basilica of Saint Peter or Saint Peter's Basilica. Many know it simply as St. Peter's Church.
The St. Peter's Basilica resides in the Vatican State on Vatican Hill in the Western section of Rome. The Vatican is the World's smallest state, and the home of the Catholic Church.
St. Peter's Basilica is built on the spot where the Roman emperor Nero had a circus, the Circo Vaticano, in which Christians were martyred between 64 and 67 AD. One of these christians were St. Peter. In the fourth century the first Christian emperor Constantine ordered the construction of a basilica on the spot, which was finished in 326.
The Basilica we know today was built in the period from 1506 to 1626, on the location of the Constantinian Basilica.
St. Peter's Square next to the basilica was constructed between 1656 and 1667. The obelisk at its center is 25,5 meters high and has a long history in the local area. It was first erected in the Circo Vaticano, and moved to its present location in 1585.
The square is flanked by two colonnades of Doric columns, by Bernini.
The construction of the basilica was taken over by Michelangelo when he was 72, in 1547, and he is credited with constructing the dome.
This evening view of the Vatican from the Vittore Emanuel II monument shows the St. Peter's dome with the Vatican radio station and antennae to its right.
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