Christmas Tree in St Peter`s Square in the Vatican City, Rome, Italy. St. Peter`s Square was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini including the massive Doric colonnades,four columns deep, which embrace visitors in `the maternal arms of Mother Church`. The square was projected from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII. The colonnades frame the trapezoidal entrance to the basilica and the massive elliptical area which precedes it.