Reshaping Rome

Bernini also worked at the scale of a whole city. His grandest project was the colonnade of St. Peter's Square (1656-1667): two huge curved rows of columns, hundreds of them, sweeping out from the basilica like a pair of open arms welcoming pilgrims.

Inside St. Peter's he raised the baldachin, a twisting bronze canopy nearly 95 feet tall over the main altar — a piece of furniture the size of a building.

His reach went far beyond churches. Bernini scattered Rome with fountains that still anchor its squares — the Triton spouting water through a conch, the great Four Rivers fountain crowned by an ancient obelisk.

These weren't quiet ornaments. They turned ordinary public squares into stages, where running water, stone gods, and daylight put on a show for anyone walking past. The tourist's Rome is, in large part, Bernini's Rome.