The Tempietto which was created around the year 1590 is considered the first fully Renaissance building in the city on the Tiber. It was completed by an architect known throughout Italy, who came to Rome from Milan and was fascinated by the archeological discoveries made in the Eternal City - Donato Bramante. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, Rome became not only a city of numerous great churches but also a city of slowly discovered relics of antiquity, which raised greater and greater and more universal admiration, also among popes – successors of St. Peter. How is it possible – we may ask – that art, which had until then been considered pagan, was elevated thus and appreciated? How did it come about, that times had changed, while the overgrown with grass and bushes ancient buildings stopped not only to insult religious feelings, but even started to inspire, while city hosts (popes) felt themselves to be the continuators of Roman emperors?

Donato Bramante expressed this new policy, as well as his own admiration for antiquity by creating a small, round structure, which in its form was to relate to the Temple of Vesta, located on the Forum Romanum. The chapel which he had erected is surrounded by sixteen Doric columns and is topped off with a dome. The interior which is only 5.5 meters in diameter is a multiple of the diameter of a column, exactly as had been recommended by the ancient architect Vitruvius. The place in which the Tempietto (Small Temple) stands was not chosen by accident. It is here, as tradition would have it (according to other stories it was the Circus of Nero on Vatican Hill), where St. Peter was crucified, while the cross was to stand exactly in this location. This is recalled by a chapel found inside from the end of the XVI century. It is adorned by a raw altar with an image of St. Peter, whose base is decorated with a relief depicting the scene of the martyrdom of the first apostle. Above the windows there are figures of the Four Evangelists with their symbols, completed in the following century by Giovanni Francesca Rossi, one of the students of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The founders of the building, who entrusted its erection to Bramante, were the Spanish royal couple – Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Perhaps, this was a form of thanksgiving for Pope Alexander VI, for bestowing upon them the titles of Catholic kings, but also his consent for the annexation by Spain of half the world, after the discoveries of Christopher Columbus. One hundered years later, another Spanish king, Philip III, decided to accentuate the Spanish foundation to an even greater degree, ordering the construction of a slender lantern, which unfortunately disturbed the ideal proportions of the church.

In 1628 it once again became a point of interest. Then the crypt was created, which can be accessed from the side opposite the main enterance. It is exactly here that the martyrdom of St. Peter was to take place. It is decorated with rich stuccos, from the XVIII century which inform us about the episodes from the life of the apostle, turning this modest in concept place into a veritable salon. Unfortunately it cannot be entered, but we may catch a glimpse of it.

The Tempietto is quite popular, although it is not a destination of mass tourist “pilgrimages”. However, there are always visitors diligently photographing this masterpiece of architecture or others – lost in thought; art students come here as well, attempting to transfer the beauty of this structure onto paper with the use of a pencil. And although the architecture itself, which made antiquity real fashionable in subsequent centuries, cannot be overvalued, the furnishing of the church leaves a lot to be desired, is disappointing even. We get the feeling that it is a place where excellence came face to face with mediocrity. We can only wonder how ideal everything would have looked if all these decorations, altars and sculptures had simply never been created.