St. Peter in Chains (San Pietro in Vincoli)

Frommer's Review

This church was founded in the 5th century to house the chains that bound St. Peter in Palestine (they're preserved under glass). But its drawing card is the tomb of Pope Julius II, with one of the world's most famous sculptures: Michelangelo's Moses. Michelangelo was to have carved 44 magnificent figures for the tomb. That didn't happen, but the pope was given a great consolation prize -- a figure intended to be "minor" that's now counted among Michelangelo's masterpieces. In the Lives of the Artists, Vasari wrote about the stern father symbol of Michelangelo's Moses: "No modern work will ever equal it in beauty, no, nor ancient either."

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