Filarete Door at Saint Peter’s Basilica
We were practically done with our exploration of Saint Peter’s Basilica. If you were wondering why there weren’t a lot featured on this blog, it is only because of the sheer amount of stuff that can be covered on the blog the I decided to omit them. There were numerous statues of biblical figures and popes which little the grounds of the basilica. It was a veritable palace and best appreciated when there, at least this is my excuse. Anyway, I was also glad that we were on our way out. I seem to have been quite templed out, it is not to the extent I was in Bagan, Myanmar or in Angkor Wat, Cambodia. This one was milder since we only visit churches every day, not every half hour.
Center Door at Saint Peter’s Basilica
On the way out of the basilica, I caught a glimpse of the entrance doors. There were several doors but notably, the center one was closed. I wondered why they left one of them closed. I then remembered that there was a thing called the Holy Door. The Holy Door is noted that by the fact that it is not normally open. In fact, it is only open every Jubilee year, that is every fifty years or when the pope decides it to be. In fact, they wanted to make sure that it stays closed because the Holy Door is cemented shut. You would want to wait for the pope to open the Holy Door in the next Jubilee year. I was quite excited to find out such an interesting place in the basilica. However, I later found out that that the door here at the center isn’t the Holy Door. Apparently, the Holy Door is on the north side of the basilica. I didn’t notice it unfortunately.
This center door was no slouch either, this is known as the Filarete Door. The name came from the artist who did the amazing bas relief of the door. Apparently, this door came from the old basilica prior to this one, yes, there was a previous one. The door was a bit smaller in its new location, so they needed to add a bit more door to the old door. I wasn’t sure why the center door is closed in the first place.
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