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The restoration of the basilica was without daubi the masi impartani commission given la Barromini. li was Innacenì X, Pamphilj, wha ordered the restaratian af the buiìding that had gone mia a state af decay far the Jubilee af 1650.The pope, hawever, limited the ingeniaus solutions presented by the architeci, since he intended io preserve as much as possible of the previous
warks. The mosi draslic decision cancerned the renunciatian af the canstructian of the vauli in the main nave, planned in barreì vauìting of rounded caisson arches, and, instead, slayed with the previaus waaden ceiling from halfway thraugh the 1500s.
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The main nave has pillars with twelve aedicules decorated in the lympanum by the papal dove, in which colassal statues were placed in the 18th century. The architeci arranged the sepulchraì fragments from earlier periads ofthe basilica in a completeìy ariginal manner, in the side aisles. He placed them in aedicuìes carved mia the wall and embellishing them with decorative items invented by him. |
