旅游英语：梵地冈圣彼得教堂

　　圣彼得大教堂(Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano)，其标准名为圣伯多禄大教堂。圣彼得为英语的俗译。由米开朗基罗设计，是____大公教会(天主教会)的教堂，大公教会教徒的朝圣地与梵蒂冈罗马教宗的教廷，是世界五大教堂之首。它建在皇帝尼录的马戏团的遗址上，为了纪念被罗马暴君钉死在十字架上的使徒彼得。如今，举世闻名的珍贵藏品包括：米开朗琪罗24 岁时雕塑作品皮耶塔，贝尔尼尼雕制的青铜华盖，贝尔尼尼设计的镀金的青铜宝座——圣彼得宝座。自查理曼大帝开始，多位皇帝曾在这里加冕……

　　In the classical period the site was occupied by Nero's Circus， between the Tiber， the Janiculum， and the Vatican Hill， and St.Peter's，the Prince of the Apostles， was martyred and then buried here. Pope Anacletus had already had a small basilica， ad corpas， or a simple shrine built here.

　　In 324 the emperor Constantine replaced the presumably modest shrine with a basilica of Constantinian type， in line with the other churches built in Rome in that period. Finished in 349 by Constantius， son of Constantine， the original St. Peter's was enriched throughout the centuries by donations and updatings by the popes and munificent princes.

梵地冈圣彼得教堂

　　It was in Constantine's basilica that Charlemagne received the crown from the hands of Leo III in 800 and after him Lothair， Louis II， and Frederick III were crowned emperors.

　　The Basilica of St. Peter's in Vatican also contains a whole collection of famous monuments， from Michelangelo's Pieta to the venerated effigy of St. Peter shown in the act of blessing， which dates to the 13th century; Bernini's Funeral Monument for Pope Urban VIII， and the analogous Funeral Complex for Paul III by Guglielmo Della Porta， the bronze Tomb created by Antonio Pollaiolo for Pope Innocent VIII， which was part of the original St. Peter's， and the neoclassic Monument to the Stuarts by Canova.

　　重点词汇

　　Michelangelo n. 米开朗基罗(意大利文艺复兴时期艺术家)

　　Bernini n. 贝尔尼尼(意大利文艺复兴时期艺术家)

　　circus n. 马戏团，杂技场

　　Tiber n. 台伯河(意大利中部，流经罗马)

　　apostle n. 耶稣十二使徒

　　martyr v. 杀害

　　pope n. 罗马教皇

　　basilica n. (古罗马)长方形

　　shrine n. (小型)神殿，神祠

　　Constantine (国王名)康斯坦丁

　　donation n. 捐赠品，捐款

　　munificent a. 慷慨的

　　crown v. 加冕

　　venerate v. 崇敬

　　analogous a. 类似的，相似的

　　neoclassic a. 新古典主义的

　　文章二

　　The fact, alone, that the great and truly unique Basilica of St. Peter's in Vatican faces out on this square wonld make it perhaps the most widely known of Roman piaz-zas. But above and beyond this, the space itself merits at-tention for its size (an enormous ellipse whose greatest di-ameter measures 240 m.) and the brilliant project by Gian Lorenzo Bernini whose scope was that of singling out this square from all others throngh the use of the imposing porticoes.

　　These porticoes are arranged in semicircles along the short sides of the square and consist of four parallel rows of Tuscan-Doric columns which provide a choice of three paths. Above the canonic entablature are 140 colossal statues of Saints, as well as the insignia of the patron pope, Alexander VII. At the center of the square, the plain obelisk, flanked by two fountains, stands at the crossing of the two diameters of the ellipse. Termed " aguglia " (needle) in the Middle Ages, the obelisk came from Heliopolis and was brought to Rome by the em-peror Caligula, and set on the spina of Nero's Circus,which is where St. Peter's in Vatican now stands. Throughout the various phases of restoration, destruc-tion, and reconstruction, the " aguglia " stayed next to the Basilica and was not set up at the center of the square until 1586 by Domenico Fontana, who also saw to the en-ginecring aspect of the undertaking.

　　The other architect, Carlo Fontana, designed the left-handiountain in Piazza San Pietro, built in 1677 as a pendant to the one on the right designed by Carlo Maderno about fifty years earli-er. A curious fact concerning the obelisk mentioned above is that it was used, or was believed to have been used in the Middle Ages, as a reliquary for the ashes of Caesar, and then (up to now) for a fragment of the Holy Cross.

　　文章三

　　San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) is a Roman Catholic titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, best known for being the home of Michelangelo's statue of Moses, part of the tomb of Pope Julius II.

　　Also known as the Basilica Eudoxiana, it was first rebuilt on older foundations[1] in 432–440 to house the relic of the chains that bound Saint Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem, the episode called the Liberation of Saint Peter. The Empress Eudoxia(wife of Emperor Valentinian III), who received them as a gift from her mother, Aelia Eudocia, consort of Valentinian II, presented the chains to Pope Leo I. Aelia Eudocia had received these chains as a gift from Iuvenalis, bishop of Jerusalem.

　　According to legend, when Leo, while he compared them to the chains of St. Peter's final imprisonment in the Mamertine Prisonin Rome, the two chains miraculously fused together.[2] The chains are kept in a reliquary under the main altar in the basilica.

　　The basilica, consecrated in 439 by Sixtus III, has undergone several restorations, among them a restoration by Pope Adrian I, and further work in the eleventh century. From 1471 to 1503, in which year he was elected Pope Julius II, Cardinal Della Rovere, the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, effected notable rebuilding. The front portico, attributed to Baccio Pontelli, was added in 1475. The cloister (1493–1503) has been attributed to Giuliano da Sangallo. Further work was done at the beginning of the 18th century, under Francesco Fontana, and there was also a renovation in 1875.

　　The Titulus S. Petri ad vincula was assigned on 20 November 2010, to Donald Wuerl. The previous Cardinal Priest of the basilica was Pío Laghi, who died on 11 January 2009.

　　Two popes were elected in this church : Pope John II in 533 and Pope Gregory VII in 1073.

　　Next to the church is hosted the Faculty of Engineering of La Sapienza University. This is named "San Pietro in Vincoli" per antonomasia. The church is located on the Oppian Hill near Cavour metro station, a short distance from the Colosseum.

　　The interior has a nave and two aisles, with three apses divided by antiqueDoric columns. The aisles are surmounted by cross-vaults, while the nave has an 18th century coffered ceiling, frescoed in the center by Giovanni Battista Parodi, portraying the Miracle of the Chains (1706).

　　Michelangelo's Moses (completed in 1515), while originally intended as part of a massive 47-statue, free-standing funeral monument for Pope Julius II, became the centerpiece of the Pope's funeral monument and tomb in this, the church of della Rovere family. Moses is depicted with horns, connoting "the radiance of the Lord", due to the similarity in the Hebrew words for "beams of light" and "horns". This kind of iconographic symbolism was common in early sacred art, and for an artist horns are easier to sculpt than rays of light.

　　Other works of art include two canvases of Saint Augustine and St. Margaret by Guercino, the monument ofCardinal Girolamo Agucchi designed by Domenichino, who is also the painter of a sacristy fresco depicting theLiberation of St. Peter (1604). The altarpiece on the first chapel to the left is a Deposition by Cristoforo Roncalli. The tomb of Cardinal Nicholas of Kues (d 1464), with its relief, Cardinal Nicholas before St Peter, is by Andrea Bregno. Painter and sculptor Antonio Pollaiuolo is buried at the left side of the entrance. He is the Florentine sculptor who added the figures of Romulus and Remus to the sculpture of the Capitoline Wolf on the Capitol.[3] The tomb of Cardinal Cinzio Passeri Aldobrandini, decorated with imagery of the Grim Reaper, is also in the church.

　　In 1876 archeologists discovered the tombs of those once believed to be the seven Maccabean martyrs depicted in 2 Maccabees 7–41.[4] It is highly unlikely that these are in fact the Jewish martyrs that had offered their lives in Jerusalem. They are remembered each year on 1 August, the same day as the miracle of the fusing of the two chains.

　　18th century fresco, The Miracle of the Chains in the center of the coffered ceiling by Giovanni Battista Parodi (1706).

　　The third altar in the left aisle holds a mosaic of Saint Sebastian from the seventh century. This mosaic is related to an outbreak of plague inPavia, in northern Italy. It would only stop if an altar was built for St. Sebastian in the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli in that city. Somehow this story also became accepted in Rome. Hence the altar.