A Pope’s Magnificent Bet On a Young Bernini

March 5, 2026 World News

Vatican Media
Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, where Bernini’s gorgeous bronze monument to the Chair of Peter acts as a massivebronze reliquary for the historic wooden chair.

An exhibition in Rome traces how Pope Urban VIII backed the 25-year-old artist behind St. Peter’s soaring bronze canopy — and the decade-long project that helped define Baroque Catholicism.

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