New Saint Peter's Begun

April 18, 1506

Pope Julius II laid the first stone of a basilica so vast that its dome could cover the Pantheon entire. Bramante's plan demolished the crumbling fourth-century church of Constantine. To pay for the new Saint Peter's, the pope would sell indulgences across Europe, with consequences he never imagined. Bramante's Greek-cross design would be modified by every subsequent architect, from Raphael to Michelangelo, whose dome defined Rome's skyline.