For centuries, workers hanging from ropes lit Michelangelo’s dome by hand every June, and the iron brackets that held the fire are still thereVisitors who climb to the top of St. Peter’s dome, up the 537 steps counted by the Vatican, usually look out at the city. Those who look down along the ribs of the cupola spot something odd: a row of large, rusty metal spikes. They are what remains of one of Rome’s great spectacles.According to a Rome audio guide, the spikes were used to light up the dome. On the feast of Saint Peter, June 29, at a papal coronation or on another special occasion, rings of real torches and lanterns were arranged around the cupola, and often around other parts of the church and the colonnade. The Night the Dome Burned The best-known version of the ritual took place on the night of June 28-29. An auction house describes the event, in a note on a 19th-century painting of the scene, as an annual illumination of the basilica, and says it dates from 1481 under Pope Sixtus IV. The attribution to Michelangelo and Bernini that it also mentions should be treated with caution. The torches themselves are older: a Rome guide notes that they had been used to illuminate the church since the 14th century, with workers on simple ropes lowering and lighting them at the same moment. The effect was designed to be a surprise. According to a 19th-century account quoted by a Rome audio guide, at the stroke of half past seven a mass of red fire shot up from the dome to the cross, and countless lights burst out across the church in answer. A tour company describes the scene at dusk: 360 men, called sanpietrini, hung from ropes on the dome and the cross to light some 4,000 lamps and 1,000 large lamps filled with pitch and rosin. That is a secondary source, so treat the numbers as indicative. An Innovation in 1626 The big upgrade came with the consecration of the basilica on November 18, 1626, by Pope Urban VIII. According to Rome guides, the new church was lit with an enormous quantity of torches and lanterns, and the lanterns were a real innovation: braziers filled with fat and sawdust, which could burn for at least six hours and could be renewed. The show was such a success that the poet Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli remembered it centuries later. Goethe Was There Visitors wrote about it for generations. Goethe watched the illumination in 1780, during his first visit to Rome, and described a spectacle worthy of a fairy tale, according to the auction house’s note. The whole process of lighting everything took roughly an hour, and he found the finished effect almost unreal. A 19th-century English account describes the lighting of paper lanterns that looked like globes of fire, with the dome and colonnades drawn in lines of light. The End of the Torches The tradition did not survive the 20th century. Sources differ on exactly when it ended. The auction house says candlelight was used until the mid-1930s, when the dome was electrified, while the tour company says the climbers were still at work until 1937. The safest summary is “until the 1930s.” The same auction note adds that the celebrations stopped in the second half of the 20th century and returned in 2009 under Benedict XVI, though it does not say in what form. Michelangelo’s Dome Today The dome that carried the fire is itself a Renaissance story. According to the Vatican, Michelangelo designed it in 1546, work stopped at the drum when he died in 1564, the vault was completed in May 1590, and the gilded bronze lantern was finished on November 18, 1593. The spikes, on the other hand, were never meant to be seen as decoration. They were scaffolding for light. Lighting is still being updated. In March 2025, the Fabric of St. Peter began renewing the lighting of the dome with new fixtures meant to illuminate the drum more intensely and evenly, as reported by Vatican News.

Visitors who climb to the top of St. Peter’s dome, up the 537 steps counted by the Vatican, usually look out at the city. Those who look down along the ribs of the cupola spot something odd: a row of large, rusty metal spikes. They are what remains of one of Rome’s great spectacles. According to a Rome audio guide, the spikes were used to light up the dome. On the feast of Saint Peter, June 29, at a papal coronation or on another special occasion, rings of real torches and lanterns were arranged around the cupola, and often around other parts of the church and the colonnade. The best-known version of the ritual took place on the night of June 28-29. An auction house describes the event, in a note on a 19th-century painting of the scene, as an annual illumination of the basilica, and says it dates from 1481 under Pope Sixtus IV. The attribution to Michelangelo and Bernini that it also mentions should be treated with caution. The torches themselves are older: a Rome guide notes that they had been used to illuminate the church since the 14th century, with workers on simple ropes lowering and lighting them at the same moment. The effect was designed to be a surprise. According to a 19th-century account quoted by a Rome audio guide, at the stroke of half past seven a mass of red fire shot up from the dome to the cross, and countless lights burst out across the church in answer. A tour company describes the scene at dusk: 360 men, called sanpietrini, hung from ropes on the dome and the cross to light some 4,000 lamps and 1,000 large lamps filled with pitch and rosin. That is a secondary source, so treat the numbers as indicative. The big upgrade came with the consecration of the basilica on November 18, 1626, by Pope Urban VIII. According to Rome guides, the new church was lit with an enormous quantity of torches and lanterns, and the lanterns were a real innovation: braziers filled with fat and sawdust, which could burn for at least six hours and could be renewed. The show was such a success that the poet Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli remembered it centuries later. Visitors wrote about it for generations. Goethe watched the illumination in 1780, during his first visit to Rome, and described a spectacle worthy of a fairy tale, according to the auction house’s note. The whole process of lighting everything took roughly an hour, and he found the finished effect almost unreal. A 19th-century English account describes the lighting of paper lanterns that looked like globes of fire, with the dome and colonnades drawn in lines of light. The tradition did not survive the 20th century. Sources differ on exactly when it ended. The auction house says candlelight was used until the mid-1930s, when the dome was electrified, while the tour company says the climbers were still at work until 1937. The safest summary is “until the 1930s.” The same auction note adds that the celebrations stopped in the second half of the 20th century and returned in 2009 under Benedict XVI, though it does not say in what form. The dome that carried the fire is itself a Renaissance story. According to the Vatican, Michelangelo designed it in 1546, work stopped at the drum when he died in 1564, the vault was completed in May 1590, and the gilded bronze lantern was finished on November 18, 1593. The spikes, on the other hand, were never meant to be seen as decoration. They were scaffolding for light. Lighting is still being updated. In March 2025, the Fabric of St. Peter began renewing the lighting of the dome with new fixtures meant to illuminate the drum more intensely and evenly, as reported by Vatican News.