The St. Peter's Basilica faces completely modern threats

Vatican - The walls of St. Peter's Basilica, which have proudly towered in Rome for half a millennium, are now exposed to a pernicious and entirely modern threat. In recent years, they have been most damaged by young tourists armed with markers and chewing gum, said a prelate in charge of maintaining the largest Christian shrine to the ANSA agency.
"People have no idea how much time and energy it takes to remove chewing gum," complains Cardinal Francesco Marchisano. "It gets everywhere, finds its way into every crack in the marble."
Daily, around 25,000 tourists flock to the enormous basilica, which rises above the grave of St. Peter and is filled with artistic treasures created by such artists as Michelangelo and Bernini.
An army of 130 so-called sanpietrini constantly cleans the marble, which we encounter at every turn, repairs what has been destroyed, and tries to remove the traces of the presence of so many visitors.
In addition to carving hardened chewing gum out of the crevices of the marble, they also have to remove graffiti left by groups of teenagers who adorn the walls when the guides in the basilica are not watching.
Cardinal Marchisano stated that cleaning and maintaining the basilica are costly, but he could not provide an exact figure.
"Providence never has its wallet closed for us, even though our expenses are often sudden and unpredictable," he said. Sometimes even the offenders or those responsible for them help out.
Marchisano recalled how the rector of an English university wrote to him and apologized for the inscriptions his students caused in St. Peter's Basilica while accompanying them there. When he saw the photographs in which the students proudly immortalized their work, the rector collected 1500 euros and sent them to the Vatican to cover the costs associated with removing the graffiti.
The majority of the funds for maintaining the basilica come from ticket sales purchased by visitors eager to climb to the famous dome.
The cornerstone of the basilica was laid on April 19, 1506, and the construction was completed more than a hundred years later. Many great architects contributed to the project, including Giacomo della Porta, Francesco Borromini, Raphael, and Donato Bramante.
The Vatican is commemorating the 500th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of St. Peter's Basilica with a series of exhibitions and other cultural events.