St. Peter's Basilica is preparing for the Jubilee of 2025. For this reason, the restoration of the Baldachin, the central fulcrum of the entire basilica, has begun.
The scaffolding was erected to allow work on Bernini's monumental work, made of bronze, gold and wood.
Everything will be ready by the end of November, in view of the opening of the 2025 Jubilee. The Pope's celebrations, starting from Easter, will still be able to take place safely.
"I want this basilica to be open to the world of communication, to be welcoming and inclusive as it is in its vocation. And that through the media it can communicate those values, which are reflected in art, true monuments to faith. An open basilica ", underlined the communication director of the basilica, Father Enzo Fortunato, accompanying a group of journalists on the construction site which was opened on February 14 inside the basilica.
"Today we find ourselves faced with the hinge around which the entire architecture of the basilica revolves", added the Franciscan, recalling how Gian Lorenzo Bernini worked on the realization of the work "together with one of his most bitter rivals, Francesco Borromini, a sign that working together is possible."
The engineer Alberto Capitanucci, responsible for the technical area of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, recalls that the Baldacchino "is thirty meters high, like a ten-storey building, with statues four meters high and a complexity linked to the difference in materials, bronze , gold and wood. A monumental and monumental work will also, as I hope, be the result."
The restoration will involve ten to twelve people for ten months.
"They are all excellent restoration works, each with its own specialisation, because it is a multi-material work", added Capitanucci.
The scaffolding will be covered with sheets but not decorated, as often happens in restoration works because "to work it is necessary for light to filter through".
The works are carried out in maximum safety.
The last major and radical intervention on the Baldacchino of St. Peter dates back to the year 1758: a large team of workers and specialized workers worked there for about three months (up to sixty people a day).
The canopy was then carefully cleaned, the many oxidations were removed, various components were consolidated and made safe and, above all, the gilding was extensively restored or redone.
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