About four years ago I visited Rome with my brother (I was mainly looking for more inspiration for a sequel to my Dutch faction-novel Alexandra’s Reis). During a long walk our attention was drawn to this enormous building. It has a really impressive exterior, visible from afar. It was less impressive than St. Peter’s Basilica, but so much quieter.
The most striking thing on the inside I found the long series of portraits of all the popes to date. I didn’t focus on the different periods when there have been two or three competing popes, but on the end of the series. There was only room for a few popes! wonderful. Would people really still count on an end of time at the time of the construction of that basilica?