By Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
ROME (CNS) — Approximately 40,000 visitors enter St. Peter’s Basilica each day, and now they can gain deeper insights into what they are seeing inside the world’s largest church.
In the leadup to the Holy Year 2025, the Vatican inaugurated the “Official Area” for St. Peter’s Basilica. Located at the start of the long avenue leading to the basilica, the center aims to enhance pilgrims’ experiences and serve as a information point.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of the basilica, blessed the information point during its inauguration Oct. 31, stating that enhancing the visitor experience for the basilica “fosters spaces of freedom in each person’s heart to return to a deep awareness of oneself, but also of the other.”
Inside, visitors will find informative books, guides, memorabilia from the basilica, and they can buy tickets to visit the dome — the only part of the basilica that requires a paid ticket. Above all they can encounter a multilingual staff that can answer their questions.
Any profits from the sale of goods from the info point will be used for nonprofit projects in partnership with the Be Human Foundation.
The info point will also offer augmented reality experiences to show visitors aspects of the basilica in greater detail, such as the recent restoration of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s 10-story bronze canopy that stands over the basilica’s main altar.
For those with mobility concerns, the center provides support to organize accessible visits to the basilica, including tactile resources for the visually impaired.
Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, communications director of St. Peter’s Basilica, told Catholic News Service that people visiting Rome “many times, not knowing the city, feel lost, and so having a signpost that can help them orient themselves I think is a service in the true sense of the word.”
As a major destination for pilgrims, the basilica should be accessible to everyone, he said, and the church should enable visitors to have a meaningful and profound experience as they walk through it.
Many visitors “come here only once their whole lives,” he said. “If we are not close to these people, then who should we be close to?”
Cardinal Gambetti said that the next step for the basilica lies in the digital realm: the basilica is in the process of launching a digital platform that includes an app with podcasts, videos and information about religious sites in Rome.
The platform will help people reserve tours for groups and advise pilgrims, in real time, which sites are busy and suggesting alternatives.
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