Piazza San Pietro Background

     I just arrived in Rome, so I decided to wander from my apartment and explore.  I eventually ended up at Piazza San Pietro, which was redesigned by Bernini with the supervision and direction of Pope Alexander VII from 1656-1667.  This is where you can find the Pope giving his blessings, so the goal was to maximize the space to allow as many people as possible.
     At the center of Piazza San Pietro is the first obelisk I have seen in Rome so far.  This obelisk was crafted out of red granite.  The builder is unknown, but it was originally erected in Heliopolis during the 5th dynasty in Egypt.  Caligula had it moved to Rome in 37 AD.  However, it was not until 1586 that an architect named Domenico Fontana (with the direction of Pope Sixtus V) erected it in Piazza San Pietro.  I found it appropriate to stumble across the obelisk Vaticano first since it was the first erected in modern times.  It is also the only obelisk that has not fallen since ancient Roman times.  The cross sitting on top of the obelisk Vaticano was not there originally.  I have read claims about this signifying the triumph of Catholicism over other religions, but I want to look into this further as I study the many obelisks of Ancient Rome.
     There are even more pagan elements intertwined in Piazza San Pietro.  In 1817, steps were taken to enable this obelisk to function as a sundial.  Circular stones were placed at the edges of the obelisk's shadow/sundial's gnomon.  If you read about this phenomenon on Wikipedia, it states "circular stones were set to mark the tip of the obelisk's shadow at noon as the sun entered each of the signs of the zodiac".  Interesting...   
     Incase you are not aware, Rome is home to the most obelisks in the entire world.  There are 8 ancient Egyptian obelisks and 5 ancient Roman obelisks (along with a number of miscellaneous modern obelisks).  Rick Steves (famous tour guide) claims that some of the ancient Roman obelisks have hieroglyphs misspelled.  I will have to investigate when I get closer to fluency in Middle Egyptian.
     It is extremely intriguing to me that so much Egyptian and pagan imagery is literally connected to the Catholic imagery of Rome.  I will expand on this further in later posts.