San Pietro in Vincoli (Italian: Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli) is a Roman Catholic titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, best known for being the home of the relics of the chains that bound Saint Peter.
The church is close to Colosseum, but the entrance is quite covert, not easy to find.
The church is also known for Michelangelo's statue of Moses, part of the tomb of Pope Julius II. Commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II for his tomb, it depicts the biblical figure Moses with horns on his head, based on a description in chapter 34 of Exodus in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible used at that time.
The chains are now kept in a reliquary under the main altar in the basilica. Roman Empress Eudoxia (422-493), who received them as a gift from her mother Aelia Eudocia, presented the chains to Pope Leo I. Aelia Eudocia had received these chains as a gift from Iuvenalis, bishop of Jerusalem.
According to legend, when Leo compared these chains to the chains of St. Peter's final imprisonment in the Mamertine Prison, in Rome, the two chains miraculously fused together.
The nave has an 18th-century coffered ceiling, frescoed in the center by Giovanni Battista Parodi, portraying the Miracle of the Chains (1706). In this scene, Pope Alexander heals the neck goiter of Saint Balbina by touching her with the chains that once bound St Peter.
The basilica, consecrated in 439 by Sixtus III, has undergone several restorations, besides Michelangelo's statue of Moses, there are also many other artworks worth to see.
