<P> The Pope had appointed Carlo Maderno in 1602 . He was a nephew of Domenico Fontana and had demonstrated himself as a dynamic architect . Maderno's idea was to ring Michelangelo's building with chapels, but the Pope was hesitant about deviating from the master's plan, even though he had been dead for forty years . The Fabbrica or building committee, a group drawn from various nationalities and generally despised by the Curia who viewed the basilica as belonging to Rome rather than Christendom, were in a quandary as to how the building should proceed . One of the matters that influenced their thinking was the Counter-Reformation which increasingly associated a Greek Cross plan with paganism and saw the Latin Cross as truly symbolic of Christianity . </P> <P> Another influence on the thinking of both the Fabbrica and the Curia was a certain guilt at the demolition of the ancient building . The ground on which it and its various associated chapels, vestries and sacristies had stood for so long was hallowed . The only solution was to build a nave that encompassed the whole space . In 1607 a committee of ten architects was called together, and a decision was made to extend Michelangelo's building into a nave . Maderno's plans for both the nave and the facade were accepted . The building began on 7 May 1607, and proceeded at a great rate, with an army of 700 labourers being employed . The following year, the façade was begun, in December 1614 the final touches were added to the stucco decoration of the vault and early in 1615 the partition wall between the two sections was pulled down . All the rubble was carted away, and the nave was ready for use by Palm Sunday . </P> <P> The facade designed by Maderno, is 114.69 metres (376.3 ft) wide and 45.55 metres (149.4 ft) high and is built of travertine stone, with a giant order of Corinthian columns and a central pediment rising in front of a tall attic surmounted by thirteen statues: Christ flanked by eleven of the Apostles (except Saint Peter, whose statue is left of the stairs) and John the Baptist . The inscription below the cornice on the 1 metre (3.3 ft) tall frieze reads: </P> <P> IN HONOREM PRINCIPIS APOST PAVLVS V BVRGHESIVS ROMANVS PONT MAX AN MDCXII PONT VII (In honour of the Prince of Apostles, Paul V Borghese, a Roman, Supreme Pontiff, in the year 1612, the seventh of his pontificate) </P>

Who designed the facade of st peter's in rome