St. Peter’s Basilica completes mosaic restoration of ornate chapel dome

St. Peter’s Basilica, which is marking 400 years since its consecration, has completed a mosaic restoration in the dome of one of its most ornate chapels.

The Fabbrica di San Pietro — the Vatican institution responsible for maintaining St. Peter’s — announced the project’s completion on Sept. 17. The announcement described the project as necessary to conserve “one of the most significant decorative achievements of early seventeenth-century Rome.” The Italian Mannerist painter Cristofano Roncalli (also known as “Il Pomarancio”) created the mosaics between 1601 and 1604.

The circular hole contains the name of Pope Clement VIII, who commissioned the Clementine Chapel on the upper floor of St. Peter’s Basilica. The restoration of the dome’s mosaics was completed in September 2026. | Credit: Fabbrica di San Pietro

The Clementine Chapel, distinct from another of the same name in the Vatican Grottoes, contains the Altar of St. Gregory the Great (where he is buried), the monument to Pope Pius VII, the Altar of the Lie, and the Altar of the Transfiguration.

Deacons process through the Clementine Chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica during a chrism Mass with Pope Leo XIV on April 2,…