Italy, Rome, St. Peter's Basilica |Description
Professor Dale Kinney
St. Peter's was built on the slope of the Vatican Hill (Mons Vaticanus), in a cemetery which had grown up around the ruins of the Circus of Nero. Legend had it that Peter was martyred with other Christians in this circus in 64, in retribution for the famous fire that burned much of Rome. By the third century CE, a modest tomb below a wall in the cemetery was venerated by Christians as Peter's.
The huge basilica constructed in the fourth century obliterated much of the cemetery, leaving only the wall marking Peter's grave.