THE ALTARSTEPS OF ST. PETER'S AND THE VATICAN BASILICA AS A MODEL

Since the 1940's, it has become common knowledge that the Vatican basilica of St. Peter's served as an inspiring example and model in medieval church architecture, regarding building type and decorative system as well as liturgical disposition. In scholarship on the so-called Gregorian liturgical arrangement, dating from 600 AD ca., most attention has been paid to the characteristic annular crypt. In this contribution a more differentiated approach is expounded, on the one hand with an analysis of the various 'imitable' elements of St. Peter's Early Medieval presbytery as a prototype, and on the other with a brief investigation of their reception in other churches during the Early and High Middle Ages. The layout of the steps giving access to the raised presbytery is still an uncertain element in the reconstruction of St. Peter's lost presbytery, but the reception history turns out to shed more light on its original design.