The Baldachin is a large Baroque bronze canopy designed... by Bernini between 1623 - 1634, rising above the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica Its towering columns draw the eye upward beneath the vast dome, while the altar itself stands directly over the tomb of Saint Petershow more

8. St. Peter’s Basilica - Vatican City Designed by... Michelangelo, Bernini, and others, this basilica is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture with its grand dome and ornate interior.show more

The “Floating Madonna” is the centerpiece of the high... altar of the church of Rohr Abbey, in Bavaria, Germany, created by late Baroque sculptor Egid Quirin Asam.show more

Happy Birthday, Rome! 🏛️✨ Today, Rome turns 2,779 years... old since its founding Our wishes sealed with the “Holy Kiss” of Saint Catherine of Siena upon the dome of St. Peter’s Basilicashow more

Many Catholics think that St Peter was the first... Catholic Church that was built, but it wasn’t. St. John Luteran is the very first Catholic church that was built. It has the skulls of St. Peter and St. Paul above the altar and also a piece of wood from the actual table where Jesus had his last supper with his disciples. The Catholic Church knows how to keep history.show more

Today is Michaelmas. The autumn feast of St. Michael... the Archangel: guardian of high places, weigher of souls, heavenly warrior against evil, defender against the dark. Below, the light strikes the high altar at the Magnificat for Michaelmas Vespers.show more

Pope Francis appeared publicly just over 24 hours ago,... when he wished worshippers in the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square a “Happy Easter”. The Pope, 88, waved to cheering crowds from his wheelchair on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.show more

Caravaggio was born on this day in 1571. The... Cerasi Chapel in Rome’s Church of Santa Maria del Popolo is home to two masterpieces by the Baroque master: The Crucifixion of St Peter and The Conversion of St Paul.show more

☦️ The Armenian Monastery of Saint Thaddeus in northwestern... Iran. Rising in northwestern Iran near Urmia (specifically the Maku region), the Saint Thaddeus Monastery is one of the oldest and most magnificent Christian monuments in the area. Due to the dark-colored stones of its walls, it is also known by the locals as the 'Black Church' (Qara Kelisa). According to tradition, it was built over the tomb of Saint Thaddeus, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ, who brought Christianity to these lands. Video by Hamed Akbarishow more

The beauty of Catholicism ❤️ The chanting of magnificat... for MichaelMas Vespers at St Michael's Abbey in California. The newly built church of the Abbey was designed in such a way that the sunlight would strike the altar at the end of Vespers on the Feast Day of St Michael. There are currently 35 men studying for the priesthood at St Michael’s Abbey, which was founded in 1961 by seven Hungarian priests who fled communist oppression.show more

Valletta is the capital of Malta and the smallest... capital of the European Union. Built in the 16th century by the Knights of San Juan, this walled fortress city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and stands out for its baroque architecture, its characteristic colorful balconies and its more than 300 monuments.show more

I will never forget the first time I walked... into St Peter's Basilica... None of it is painted. Everything overhead that appears to be a fresco is a mosaic: millions of small glass tiles, cut and set into place by hand. Michelangelo pierced the drum with sixteen windows, and beneath them runs a band of text, black on gold: TU ES PETRUS ET SUPER HANC PETRAM AEDIFICABO ECCLESIAM MEAM. "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." From the floor it reads like an ordinary inscription but each of those letters is two metres tall... Above the windows the dome divides into sixteen segments, and within them six tiers of figures rise in rings: the popes buried in the basilica, then Christ, the Virgin Mary, St John the Baptist and the Apostles, then angels carrying the instruments of the Passion, then the faces of cherubim and seraphim. Above all of them, a blue sky scattered with gold stars, and at the summit, in the lantern, God the Father. The man who designed it, Giuseppe Cesari, was a painter. Between 1603 and 1612 he produced sixty-five life-size cartoons setting out the whole scheme, and every one of them was then translated into glass by mosaicists. The reason is actually pretty unglamorous. The basilica was damp, and candle smoke and incense from centuries of liturgy were eating the pictures alive. So the Vatican began converting the building into glass, dome by dome, and from the end of the 1600s the painted altarpieces too, one at a time. By the basilica's own reckoning, around ten thousand square metres of mosaic. The workshop that did all of this is still open: twelve artists work in the Vatican Mosaic Studio today, cutting tesserae by hand in nearly 28,000 shades and fixing them with a linseed-oil stucco whose recipe has been in use for four centuries. Earlier this year its director, Paolo Di Buono, described the work: "We have the idea that we are working for something that is almost eternal."show more

1. Pietà by Michelangelo (1499) St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican... City. “The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.” - Michelangeloshow more

A rare close-up encounter with the magnificent Malabar Giant... Squirrel (Ratufa indica) High in the forest canopy lives one of the world’s most colorful squirrels. Endemic to India, this remarkable species is instantly recognizable by its striking coat, which can combine shades of deep maroon, brown, black, cream, and orange.. Its coloration varies between individuals and populations, helping the squirrel blend into the complex patterns of light and shadow found in the forest canopyshow more

There is a tree in the Amazon, the Sumaúma... (Ceiba pentandra), that can reach about 70 metres tall, rising above the forest canopy. It has massive buttress roots that spread like wings to stabilise it in shallow soil, sometimes large enough to stand between. 📸 amyris /Amyris Fernandezshow more