The Vatican has unveiled plans for a year-long restoration of the monumental canopy over the main altar of St Peter’s Basilica.
The plan is to complete the work on Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s masterpiece, which will cost around €700,000, before 2025 which is a year of Jubilee in the Catholic church.
The restoration and conservation project, funded entirely by the Knights of Columbus order, marks the first comprehensive work on the 10-storey tall baldacchino in 250 years.
The structure, which is positioned over the basilica’s main altar to provide a ceremonial covering for the tomb of St Peter underneath, dates from the 1620s-1630s when Pope Urban VIII commissioned Bernini to create a canopy for the tomb.
The baldacchino is considered one of the most complicated multi-material art works of all time with its marble, bronze, wood, gold, and iron.
It eventually involved numerous other artists and craftsmen, including the master architect of the period, Francesco Borromini.
The canopy’s four massive twisting columns, featuring gilded cherubs and laurel branches, were inspired by the marble columns that surrounded St Peter’s tomb in the ancient basilica, which stood on the site of today’s St Peter’s, the biggest church in the world.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, who is in charge of the basilica and unveiled the restoration project at a news conference on Thursday, said the works would include a massive scaffolding to cover the 29-metre high canopy which would allow all liturgical celebrations to continue until its completion by December.
The restoration mostly involves a systematic cleaning of the dust-and-grime covered structure which features four 2.5-tonne statues of angels, perched atop the nine ton columns.
Other work is aimed at conservation amid evidence that some pieces are coming apart.
In addition, some of the materials have suffered centuries of degradation from changes in temperature and humidity thanks to the 50,000 people who pass through the basilica daily.
