An Office Created to Rebuild a Basilica

The Fabbrica di San Pietro was established in the early sixteenth century specifically to manage Pope Julius II's decision to demolish the ageing original St Peter's Basilica, built over a thousand years earlier under Constantine, and replace it entirely with the vast new church that stands today, a construction project spanning more than a century and involving a succession of the era's most famous architects, including Bramante, Michelangelo and Bernini. The Fabbrica's original purpose was therefore administrative and financial as much as religious, overseeing the immense fundraising, materials procurement and building supervision the project required, a role distinct from the basilica's pastoral and liturgical functions handled by its clergy.

That construction-management origin has left the Fabbrica with an unusual ongoing responsibility even now that building work is long finished: custodianship of the relics and artistic treasures embedded within the structure itself, including the reliquary niches built into the four massive pillars supporting Michelangelo's dome, one of which contains the Veil of Veronica. The Fabbrica's continued existence today, centuries after the basilica's completion, reflects the Vatican's decision to keep a dedicated body responsible for the fabric of the building rather than folding that responsibility into the basilica's ordinary clergy or a general Vatican museums administration.