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In the Middle ages, and also after the new church building had been completed, the square outside saint Peter's was a sloping area surrounded by irregular building work. The Maderno's facade of saint Peter's stood along the eastern edge of the square, while in the north of the square was concluded by the buildings of the vatican palaces and the Leonine wall.
On its opposite southern side and on its western edge, st Peter's square was surrounded by residential houses, so that it had an irregular shape. Initial efforts to regulate the square and link it with the urban scene were made by Nicholas V, the pope who, in the mid 15 century also pressed ahead with the rebuilding St Peter's Church. But Nicholas' project was not realized. In 1490, a fountain was built in the north eastern section of the still irregular square. In 1500 Alexander VI Borgia ordered that a street be built which linked Ponte sant' Angelo to st Peter's square and was oriented on the portal of the vatican palace.
In 1586 Sixtus V commissioned Domenico Fontana to set up in St Peter's Square the obelisk of the neighbouring Circus Neronis
The open space before the basilica was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, from 1656 to 1667, under the reign of Pope Alexander VII Chigi, in order that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the pope apostolic Palace. Bernini worked in the vatican for decades; now he gave order to the exterior space with his renowned colonnades, using the Tuscan form of Doric, the simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the palace-like façade by Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and provide emotions.
The square is composed by 284 columns divided in two groups of 142 each and on top of the columns there are in total 140 statues of the most important saints of Christendom.
The oval's long axis, parallel to the basilica's façade, creates a pause in the sequence of forward movements that is characteristic of a Baroque monumental approach. The colonnades define the piazza and they work also as borders between the the vatican and Italy. The oval center of the piazza, which contrasts with the trapezoidal entrance, encloses the visitor with "the maternal arms of Mother Church" in Bernini's expression. On the south side, the colonnades define and formalize the space.
The most beautiful square of Rome has many uses like public audience place, it guests the popes' funerals and it also has been used for saints' canonizations.