Workers replace ugly barricades with pillars in St. Peter's Square

Published: 2006-06-20

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Before the hot June sun began beating down on St. Peter's Square June 20, workers were guiding heavy red granite pillars into place on the border between the Vatican and Italy. The pillars, joining their gray granite ancestors, are part of an "urban decoration" scheme meant to improve the one really ugly element of St. Peter's Square: a fence composed of flimsy metal barricades. The barricades, usually found around extra deep potholes in Rome, had been in place since the beginning of the Holy Year 2000 celebration. They have been replaced with easily removable, zinc-covered iron fence segments. Rather than being flat across the top, the slats of each segment form a scoop, repeating the lines of the low chains suspended between the original granite pillars.

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