Just because I want to. I’m pulling together a page of some sort on the "Catholic Blogosphere’s Guide to Rome." I want both bloggers who are permanently based in Rome, as well as blog posts from folks who have visited. If you’re in the latter group, post links to specific blog posts (or if you’re able, on your blog, to put blog posts in categories, to that particular category.).

I know…Fr. Z; Zadok, from the past, the Roamin’ Roman…Got them. Who else? Any other travelers who’ve blogged on it and can send in links to posts?

Did Michelangelo have a blog? No, thank goodness he left behind some more permanent things. But he did have an apartment!

A 450-year-old receipt has provided proof that Michelangelo kept a private room in St. Peter’s Basilica while working as the pope’s chief architect, Vatican experts said.

While going through the basilica archives for an exhibit on the 500th anniversary of the church last year, researchers came across an entry for a key to a chest "in the room in St. Peter’s where Master Michelangelo retires."

The Renaissance painter and sculptor whose frescoes adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican was put in charge of the restoration of St. Peter’s Basilica by Pope Paul III at age 71 in 1546, a job he held until his death in 1564.

Michelangelo’s greatest contribution to the basilica was his design for the central dome or cupola, a universally acknowledged architectural triumph.

"We now know that Michelangelo definitely had a private space in the basilica," said Maria Cristina Carlo-Stella, who runs the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the office where the basilica’s archives are kept. "The next step is to identify it."

More from Beliefnet and our partners
Close Ad