500 Years of St. Peter's

Join filmmaker Ingo Langner as he celebrates the 500th anniversary of St. Peter's Cathedral, the center of the Roman Catholic Church and the humble tomb of the man designated by Jesus to bear responsibility for the Christian faith. The date was April 18, 1506. It was the beginning of the end for the nearly 1,200 year old St. Peter's basilica, because this was the day that Donato Bramante supervised the laying of a fresh stone foundation for the new St. Peter's Cathedral. But while bitter power struggles would threaten to sideline the construction, the triumphant efforts of Bramante, Raphael, Sangallo, Michelangelo, Bernini, and Maderno helped make the new St. Peter's Cathedral not only the center of the Roman Catholic church, but also a world famous landmark. Without St. Peter's Cathedral, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation may have turned out much differently.