On the same site as an ancient necropolis including the tomb of the apostle Peter who was martyred during the reign of Emperor Nero, building work on the largest church in Christendom commenced in 1505 and was to take over a century. Many famous names in architecture and art are associated with St. Peter’s, including Bramante, Raffael, Michelangelo, Maderna and Bernini, to mention but a few. The cathedral with St. Peter’s square and its colonnades is a marvel of size and splendour, surpassing all other temples and sacred buildings in the world. The massive dimensions of the church are just overwhelming for visitors: 186 m long, diameter of the dome 42 m, 132 m high. There is space for 20,000 people on 15,000 m2. St. Peter’s square itself was staged to focus on the centre of the Catholic church and is like an open-air theatre, rising up gently towards the church to make it appear even mightier. Bernini’s colonnades embrace the faithful, clasping them like two hands. Building the model was a very great challenge to the model makers and one which we did not dare take on for many years (it was top of the list of visitors’ requests for a long time). We calculated that one model maker alone would have taken 32 years to complete the work and it was therefore divided up among many technical colleges, apprentices’ workshops, private model makers and our own workshop. Over 130 m2 of model making plans were drawn up based on the original drawings. It turned out to be quite difficult to coordinate the different sections of work going on all over Austria but thanks to great organizational efforts and exemplary cooperation, it only took 7 years to make. St. Peter’s in Minimundus truly represents the acme of the art of model making.
