Melanie Khanthajan is gently scraping away layers of history to reveal a hidden treasure on the ceiling of one of Rome’s most famous basilicas.
The San Pietro in Vincoli Basilica is best known for the grand monumental tomb created by Michelangelo for Pope Julius II, featuring a marble sculpture of the prophet Moses.
But on the other side of the church, Melanie is part of a team of restorers engaged in a €2 million arts project to restore some of the church’s lesser known assets.
Four rickety ladders lead me to Melanie who is working on the top of an elaborate steel scaffolding 20 meters above the floor.
“Look here, you can see the original design of the brushstrokes in the design,” says the young restorer with a hint of excitement.
Dressed in a hard hat and overalls, Melanie uses a scalpel to scrape away layers of plaster and paint to reveal the original 15th century decorations around a coat of arms on the ceiling.
“Every removal of a layer surprises us because it allows us to understand what it is like, what emerges,” she says. “It’s wonderful, I didn’t expect it.”
Alessandra Centroni, the architect leading the project, says the project is one of the most important undertaken by the city’s cultural superintendency.
“We are bringing to light the polychrome coats of arms, which were obscured and concealed by this monochrome paint at some unknown point in time,” she told me. “The aim is to restore the decorative and architectural surfaces of the basilica.”
Like many churches in the Italian capital, San Pietro in Vincoli reveals layers of history within its walls, from Roman remains to Renaissance decorations.
The latest project is focused on restoring the decorative elements and plasterwork of the side aisles and transept, as well as the altars and funerary monuments. It is not without its challenges.
“The greatest difficulty lies in identifying the most appropriate and suitable restoration technique, and above all, the one that is most compatible with the decorative material,” says Ms Centroni.
The project is one of 100 cultural initiatives being financed in Rome with €500 million in funds from the European Union’s pandemic recovery plan. According to an agreement with the EU, the funds must be used before the end of 2026.
The basilica restoration is now in its final phase, scheduled for completion in the summer of 2026. It has already brought to light decorations that are now visible on the ceiling of the right aisle.
The original decorations were commissioned by the aristocratic Della Rovere family, who held patronage over the basilica during the Renaissance.
Pope Julius II came from the Della Rovere family and commissioned Michelangelo to create his monumental tomb inside the church.
Michelangelo devoted four decades to the project, the centerpiece of which is the 2.35-meter-high statue of Moses. The marble figure is rendered with such realism that the prophet seems to be filled with anger, with finely sculpted anatomical details such as the contraction of the forearm muscle.
San Pietro in Vincoli is just a few steps away from the Colosseum and gets its name, “vincoli,” from the Latin “vincula” for chains.
A glass box at the center of the altar holds ancient chains, which were believed to have been used to hold St. Peter in Jerusalem. According to tradition, they then miraculously fused with the chains used on Peter when he was held in the Mamertine prison in Rome.
The basilica was built in the 5th century under the Eastern Roman Empire and then Pope Julius II had the church partially rebuilt in the 16th century, adding his noble family Della Rovere’s coat of arms with an oak tree at the center on the ceilings, arches and chapels.
