CKV magazine Jun. 2014

and by the presence of so many paintings and buildings. From here, you could look through the whole basilisk and I felt so incredibly small and unimportant (and heretical J ). My mother was raised catholic and my father protestant so I know quite much about both religions. That was the part I liked exactly. In my head I made a constant comparison to the almost sober protestant churches and I found this so incredibly exaggerated. I felt like Catholicism is just one big puppet-‐show in which the beauty of something is so much more important than the religion itself. This feeling was emphasized by the statue of Petrus. For Catholics it is a very religious object and many travel to Rome, just to see this. The habit is to touch his feet so all your sins will be forgiven. His feet were already worn away for a big part due to all the people touching them and I just had to laugh about the idea that it’d be a disaster for sinful Catholics if his feet were gone. Anyway, I think this statue is a typical representation of the hypocrisy. The idea that by touching the feet of a saint would make your sins fade away is so unrealistic and, I think, typical for Catholicism. We also went up to have a view from the top of the huge dome. After a terrible and exhausting walk up the stairs, we made it to the top and after just one glance, it was worth while the trip. The broad view from the dome is so incredible and impressive. After I had pushed away my fear of heights (believe me, this dome is REALLY high!), I dared looking down and again I felt really small and unimportant. We have stood and walked around there for about half an hour in the warm sun, trying to spot the pope. We didn’t unfortunately. We also went down to the basement where the tombs of many saints were. We were not really sure whether we were there legally, as we were the only one and we took some scary stairs hidden behind a statue, but it was very nice. In the basilisk was also a small museum with all the church’s treasures. I think this was just emphasizing the Catholic atmosphere even more. All the expensive clothing with golden stitches for the popes, the golden swords, golden shields, golden thrones. I even spotted a golden toilet. Their desire and longing for beauty and wealth could not be better portrayed than by this museum. All in all, I was very impressed by the basilisk. The space and genius architecture was imposing and I learned much about Catholicism and their habits. Furthermore, I also really liked the dome and the view from the top of it. But again, I believe that the Catholic way of practising religion is very exaggerated and over the top and this could really be seen in the Baroque architecture and interior of the church. © The pictures are mine!

CKV magazine Jun. 2014 | Page 21