text: via della conciliazione via della conciliazione ( road of the conciliation ) is a street in the of borgo within rome , italy . roughly 500 metres ( 1 , 600 ft ) in length , it connects saint peter 's square to the castel sant 'angelo on the western bank of the tiber river . the road was constructed between 1936 and 1950 , and it is the primary access route to the square . in addition to shops , it is bordered by a number of historical and religious buildings – including the palazzo torlonia , the palazzo dei and the palazzo dei convertendi , and the churches of santa maria in traspontina and santo spirito in . despite being one of the few major thoroughfares in rome able to cope with a high volume of traffic without congestion , it is the subject of much ire both within the roman community and among historical scholars due to the circumstances under which it was constructed . the area around the church was rebuilt several times following the various sacks of rome , and again after having deteriorated due to the loss of prosperity resulting from the papacy 's relocation to avignon during the 14th century . through all of these reconstructions , the area in front of the short courtyard of saint peter 's basilica remained a maze of densely packed structures overhanging narrow side - streets and alleyways . previous plans plans were drawn up several times over the years for the construction of a major link between the vatican city and the centre of rome ; the number of submissions increasing dramatically with the onset of the italian renaissance . the first design was submitted by leone battista alberti during the reign of pope nicholas v , and formed one of the two perennial designs proposed for the area . alberti envisioned an " open " plan , consisting of a single voluminous v - shaped boulevard , widest at st. peter 's basilica itself and tapering as it approached the tiber . the other scheme of designs submitted by architects was a " closed " plan that would consist of two roads arching outwards in an ellipse , with the tiber and the square at opposite ends . proponents of a closed plan would usually suggest that the space between the two causeways be separated by a colonnade , or by a row of inhabited structures whose designs would be scrutinised and approved by architects employed by the holy see . variations on both themes were submitted time and time again . proponents of an " open " plan included such architects as giovanni battista and cosimo morelli . a number of other architects , such as carlo fontana , and at least one pope ( sixtus v ) favoured a " closed " design , with a number of streets radiating from the central square , maintaining the " spina " , or spine , of the structures of borgo directly between the square and the tiber . neither approach moved beyond sketches and blueprints . both open and closed designs were considered by the vatican , but were ultimately discarded for reasons of expense . a thorough examination of the costs of constructing a thoroughfare was made by the vatican - approved st. peter 's building commission in 1651 . their conclusion was that " the cardinals ' proposal to demolish all the buildings between the borgo nuovo and the borgo vecchio for a greater and longer vista to the church " would be infeasible due to inordinately high expropriation costs and vested property interests . further momentum was lost when gian lorenzo bernini was commissioned to redesign the terrace in front of the basilica in 1656 . after discarding several sketches , bernini settled on a colossal open space in the shape of an ellipse . with the potential expense of clearing borgo , bernini decided instead to make use of the warren of poorly maintained medieval buildings to obscure any view of the vatican structures from any significant distance . in this way , pilgrims emerged from the relative darkness of the city into the vast open space and grandeur of the square and its surrounding buildings – a sight calculated to inspire awe in first - time visitors to the holy see 's seat of power . bernini had originally planned to demolish a square roughly 100 m to a side directly in front of the square , filling the space with a third colonnade ( or " braccio " ) to match the two still standing today . this would afford a longer vantage point to allow visitors a better viewing angle of the new basilica . the death of his patron , pope alexander vii , put a halt to bernini 's work . the third set of columns was abandoned , and bernini 's piazza remained open - ended and incomplete . from the final major reconstruction of borgo in the 15th century , the site which the via della conciliazione now covers remained occupied by residential , religious , and historical buildings for nearly 500 years . the final impetus behind the road 's construction was primarily political . borgo , along with the rest of the papal states outside of the vatican itself , was taken by the kingdom of italy during the italian unification in the 19th century – leading to pope pius ix 's declaration that he had become a prisoner in the vatican and the formation of the roman question . for the next 59 years , the popes refused to leave the vatican , in order to avoid any appearance of accepting the authority wielded by the italian government over rome as a whole . initially , parts of the italian government welcomed this , expecting the influence of the papacy to fade to the point that enough political support could be gained to abolish it altogether . however , this failed to come to pass , and eventually a compromise acceptable to both states was reached in the lateran treaty of 1929 . mussolini and rome prime minister benito mussolini , who had signed the accord on behalf of the king , resurrected the idea of a grand thoroughfare symbolically connecting the vatican to the heart of the italian capital . to fulfil this vision , mussolini turned to the prominent fascist architects marcello and attilio . drawing inspiration from a number of the designs submitted by carlo fontana , came up with a plan that would preserve the best aspects of both the " open " and " closed " designs – a grand boulevard that would nonetheless obscure the majority of the vatican buildings per bernini 's intentions . the vast colonnaded street would require the clearance of the whole " spina " of borgo placed in between the basilica and the castle . since the facades of the buildings lining this space did not align perfectly , in order to create the illusion of a perfectly straight causeway traffic islands would be erected along both sides , with rows of obelisks leading towards the square , doubling as lampposts . these were also intended to reduce the effect that the funnel - shaped design would have on perspective when facing the basilica . the wings of those buildings closest to the square would be preserved to form a propylaea , blocking the greater portion of the vatican city from approaching visitors and framing the square and basilica at the head of a grand open space that would allow for easy vehicular access . construction demolition of the spina of borgo began with mussolini 's symbolic strike of the first building with a pickaxe on 29 october 1936 and continued for twelve months . even at the time , the demolition proved controversial , with many borgo residents displaced en masse to settlements ( " " ) outside of the city . among the buildings dismantled , either totally or in part , and rebuilt in another position , were the palazzo dei convertendi , the house of giacomo bartolomeo da brescia , the church of the , the palaces rusticucci - accoramboni and degli ( the latter had been already demolished in 1931 ) . other buildings , like the palace of the di borgo and the churches of san giacomo scossacavalli and sant 'angelo al , were destroyed . facing into the cleared area are five other historical buildings , the palazzo giraud torlonia , the church of santa maria in traspontina , the palazzo dei , palazzo , and palazzo cesi ( which was mutilated ) . the construction of the road was only a small feature in the reconstruction of rome ordered by mussolini , which ranged from the restoration of the castel sant 'angelo , the clearance of the mausoleum of augustus , to the vastly more complicated site of the via dell through rome 's ancient imperial remains . his plan was to transform rome into a monument to italian fascism . in five years , rome must appear marvellous to all the peoples of the world ; vast , orderly , powerful , as it was in the time of the first empire of augustus . benito mussolini construction of the road continued long after mussolini 's death and the abolition of italian fascism . the obelisks along the road were installed in time for the jubilee of 1950 . today since its completion , the road has acted as the primary access point to st. peter 's square , and by extension to the vatican city itself . at times , such as during the funeral of pope john paul ii , it has acted as an extension to the square itself , allowing a greater number of visitors to attend functions conducted there .