I think the gigantic force of this church defines Rome as the capital of Christendom. An emblem of the success of the Renaissance dream and global Catholicism. Julius's gamble had paid off. By the 18th century, the story of the making of the Holy City is almost complete. At first glance, Rome looked very much like it does today, filled with tourists eager to see its beautiful monuments. But there was one crucial difference between then and now. The popes were still the autocratic rulers of their own swathe of Italian territories, the Papal States. But all of that was about to change. In the mid-19th century, new ideologies were sweeping across Europe, which would permanently alter the shape of the Holy City. Republicanism and nationalism. They rejected the medieval and sclerotic papal autocracy. Having already taken hold of France, the idea of a republican nation was gathering momentum across the separate states of the Italian peninsula.


我想正是这座教堂的巨大力量将罗马认定为基督教之都。随着文艺复兴之梦的实现以及天主教传播到世界各处，尤利乌斯教皇的“赌债”已经还清。在十八世纪，打造神圣之城的故事已经到了尾声。一眼望过去，罗马看起来和今天的罗马差不多：城里挤满了游客，一心想要去看那些美丽壮观的纪念碑。那时和现在有一点重大区别：那就是教皇在那时仍然是意大利的统治者，他们之间的关系盘根错节，意大利也被称作教皇之国。但是这些都在发生变化。在十九世纪中期，新观念横扫整个欧洲，在很长一段时间内改变着神圣之城的发展方向，这些新观念就是共和主义和民族主义。他们反对陈腐落后的教皇统治。当法国处于共和制的统治以后，要建立一个共和制国家的理念迅速横扫了意大利所在的亚平宁半岛。