<\/span><\/h2>\nThe reason why Emperor Constantine built the first St. Peter’s Basilica where he did\u2014and why the “new” St. Peter’s was arranged with its altar directly over the same spot\u2014was because this is where St. Peter’s bones were thought to lie.<\/p>\n
Of course, this was hard to prove. But in the 1940s, excavations were done on the rumored spot. And, in 1953, a set of bones were found. Testing revealed they belonged to a man in his 60s, the same age that Peter would have been. Earth was encrusted on the bones, and Peter originally was buried directly in the dirt. And the bones had remnants of purple thread, a color of cloth that only would have been used in ancient times to wrap the body of someone who was seen as royal (or holy). For these reasons, Italian archaeologist Margherita Guarducci, among others, argued that the bones belonged to St. Peter.<\/p>\n
Of course, others disagree – and it’s certainly not solid proof that the bones are St. Peter’s. But the findings don’t prove that the bones don’t\u00a0<\/em>belong to St. Peter, either.<\/p>\n![\"St.](\"https:\/\/walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/walks-pinterest-735-X-1500-17-502x1024.png\")
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
St. Peter\u2019s Basilica, the ultimate symbol of the Vatican, is one of the most beautiful buildings in Rome. But with a history stretching back 2,000 years, it\u2019s also simply fascinating! Here are 6 surprising facts you might not have known about the \u201ccathedral\u201d of St. Peter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[87,68,20,80,69,18,230,19,211],"ppma_author":[155],"class_list":["post-3296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-culture","tag-architecture","tag-art","tag-attractions","tag-churches","tag-history","tag-rome","tag-st-peters-basilica","tag-vatican","tag-vatican-city"],"authors":[{"term_id":155,"user_id":3,"is_guest":0,"slug":"walksofitaly","display_name":"Walks of Italy","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9f4cd4dd0c5ab4b4bae57f3500298e23?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"http:\/\/walksofitaly.com\/blog","last_name":"of Italy","first_name":"Walks","job_title":"","description":"Walks began life as the passion project of two guys with one simple mission: To share their love for, and knowledge of, the city of Rome. Since then, Walks has grown into a team of over 100 ground staff and at any time up to 600 guides, operating across 13 of the world\u2019s most exciting cities (and counting!)\r\n\r\nToday we provide some of the most exclusive and beautifully designed small group tours in the industry through Italy-based Walks of Italy and around the world at Walks, where we offer special access to some of the world\u2019s most iconic landmarks and attractions as well as unique cultural experiences."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3296"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23712,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions\/23712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3296"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Piazza-St.-Pietro-view-from-the-top-of-Saint-Peters-Basilica-Vatican.jpg\")