Rome, Page 4 ..
The High Altar, at which only the Pope says mass, is covered by a large canopy of brass, called the Baldochino. At the command of the pope at that time, who was a member of the Barberini family, it was made of materials stripped from the Pantheon. When they sacked Rome, the Barbarians had not touched the Pantheon. This gave rise to the saying that "what the Barbarians didn't do, the Barberini did."
The inside of St. Peter's is covered with statues and paintings.
An earlier church was here, built by Constantine, the first Christian emperor, in the 4th century, over the grave of Saint Peter. It fell into disrepair, and the current church was completed in the 15th century. The bones of St. Peter are buried in a crypt beneath the church.