Pope Julius II Lays St Peter's Cornerstone Under Bramante's Design
A Greek-cross plan inspired by the Pantheon replaces the aging basilica of old Rome
Quick facts
- Architect
- Donato Bramante
- Commissioned by
- Pope Julius II
- Cornerstone laid
- 18 April 1506
- Completed
- 1615, under later architects
What happened
On 18 April 1506, Pope Julius II laid the first foundation stone for an entirely new St Peter's Basilica in Rome, to replace the fourth-century basilica built under Constantine, which by then was structurally failing. The architect Donato Bramante, a native of Urbino working in a fully classical idiom, designed the new church on a Greek-cross plan crowned by a massive central dome inspired by the Pantheon and Hagia Sophia. Bramante died in 1514 with only the great crossing piers built, and the project passed through a succession of architects, including Raphael and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, before Michelangelo took charge of the dome in 1546; the basilica was not finished until 1615.
Why it matters
The rebuilding of St Peter's became the largest and longest-running architectural project of the Renaissance, one that eventually involved nearly every major architect of the age, and Bramante's original Greek-cross, Pantheon-domed concept set the terms that Michelangelo and later Bernini would keep revising for over a century.
How we know
The 1506 foundation and Bramante's original design are documented in Vatican building records and contemporary accounts, and Encyclopedia Britannica's entry on St Peter's Basilica and the World History Encyclopedia's entry on Bramante both trace the sequence of architects from that record.
Sources
- Fabbrica di San Pietro / Basilica di San Pietro (official Vatican basilica site). The Basilica · Primary source (author-declared)basilicasanpietro.va · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Web Gallery of Art. Plans for New St Peter's in Rome, by Bramante, Donato · General sourcewga.hu · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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