In 1626, St. Peter's cost $33 Billion. What would it cost now?

How much - in modern dollars - did St. Peter’s Basilica cost to build? And how much would it cost to build an exact replica today?
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:23 The original costs of St. Peter's
4:10 Contextualizing the costs
6:17 Masterworks
7:29 Converting to modern dollars
9:03 Comparing modern megaprojects
9:55 St. Peter's vs. Taj Mahal
10:55 How much would it cost today?
11:53 Estimate One
13:51 Estimate Two
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[@falxnecis]

Ok, but how much would it cost Pope Sixtus V to build a modern nuclear power plant? 😬

[@danielefabbro822]

He would just ask the believers to make it one. When they come to ask a payment for their job, he would drastically reduce it arguing that if they asked so much, they wouldn't have the chance to enter the heavens.

[@SnowyMetalNerdDudeDuffield]

At least Seventus VI (yes I know that was terrible)

[@riograndedosulball248]

It would have costed him some 400 years I believe

[@danemortensen8243]

At least 23

[@quagernag]

quod esset de 3.5 scutos

[@psychedelaholic]

The thing that gets me about certain ancient architecture is some of the people who spent their lives labouring for the structures creation, would often not live to see it finished in their lifetime. That amount of individual dedication to a collective project is almost unheard of today.

[@mbterabytesjc2036]

Where this type of dedication can be found is in government service. I spent 15 years working in a police agency that was already about 150 years old and will go on until the Jesus returns, men's hearts are cleansed, and police are no longer needed. Any politician that thinks otherwise needs to be removed from office. 😮

[@ac1455]

The Sagrada Familia taking like 137 years meanwhile

[@psychedelaholic]

@@mbterabytesjc2036 I'm having a hard time discerning whether you're being satirical or not. To me, an organization like a governmental body is more similar to a concept of thought carried out by individuals, rather than a work of art created over generations. It's hard for me to conflate a governmental agency that's simply been established for over a century, with a beautiful work of human ingenuity that took two centuries of toil to complete such as Notre-Dam. The level of dedication required to work in service of enacted policy, is not the same as giving your life to build towards a vision that you yourself will never see fully completed.

[@GigaNietzsche]

@@mbterabytesjc2036The USA going on until Jesus returns? Don't make me laugh this place is going to be about as stable and together as a lego thrown at a wall in 100 years.

[@GigaNietzsche]

@@mbterabytesjc2036Let alone by the time Jesus returns

[@fuferito]

The main impression I got from St Peter's basilica, once inside, is the _feeling_ I was in an outdoor space while still _knowing_ I was inside one; a very peculiar and unique sensation due to the vastness of the space and the brightness of the natural light. Then, you add Michelangelo's _Pieta'_ off to the side, and Bernini's bronze _Baldacchino_ dead centre (all free of charge) and you wonder how all of it can be real.

[@zivmontenegro8303]

My dream destination is definitely Rome and St. Peter’s would be my no. 1 on my list. Also, all beautiful *churches* around _Rome._

[@LemonCamel]

No matter how many photos or videos you see, nothing prepares you for its size. It's absolutely insane how such a massive structure can be so beautiful- down to the smallest details

[@ghfudrs93uuu]

that's what she said

[@Vicus_of_Utrecht]

@@ghfudrs93uuu Your mom said otherwise.

[@dangin8811]

@@ghfudrs93uuu lmao

[@mikistjep]

When you climb the dome from the Inside... That's where it struvk me how giant this structure was

[@andresvkfouri]

4:25 honestly I'm just surprised that a chicken would cost almost the same as 2kg of flour

[@theicepickthatkilledtrotsk658]

I went to Rome last year and visited St. Peter's Basilica. It was incredible no words can do it justice.

[@steverobertson6393]

It's a shame it doesn't operate like Mecca. Only the Faithful allowed in. I wouldn't be allowed in, but people that waited and saved and actually believed should be allowed to go first or alone. Or Catholics can let Muslims do it better, I'm cool either way.

[@cooIguy]

​@@gayelorde2577holy y'all fuckers gatekeeping a building ahahaha

[@davidec.4021]

Wtf are these replies? Truly embarrassing. And yes it is truly astonishing, no photo can do it justice

[@limehawk4989]

Not even big and old? 😮

[@antoniousai1989]

@@steverobertson6393 The church is closed when there are rites, and it has a section dedicated to prayers separated from the rest. It's common in big Christian cathedrals. There's nothing to see of artistic inside the Mecca Mosque. It gets rebuilt every once in a while.

[@themetroidprime]

I wonder what ancient Romans would think upon seeing St. Peter. It was the singlemost awe-inspiring building I ever visited. No picture pays it justice.

[@blacksage2375]

Probably suitably impressed but also quite confused by Caesar’s new forum. Like why’d they forget to paint the statues when they have such marvelous pigments on the frescoes?

[@RobespierreThePoof]

​@@blacksage2375They'd probably think the architect was insane for doing everything wrong.

[@danielefabbro822]

Romans was good, but we Italians are better. 😎👍

[@paulpichler]

@@danielefabbro822Couldn’t technically anyone still living in Rome nowadays be considered a Roman?😂

[@danielefabbro822]

@@paulpichler yes.

[@robbiesuriano5559]

It cost exactly one protestant reformation

[@tdoran616]

First we need to end the Anglican Church.

[@joelwalsh]

And the original cathedral, one of the very few intact monumental buildings from before the 5th century. I'd rather see that.

[@antoniousai1989]

@@joelwalsh It wasn't intact at all. One of the reasons why Saint Peter was born was that the old Church was falling apart and wasn't built properly from the start

[@giorgiodalbano3638]

@@joelwalsh anyway Rome and Italy are full of amazing 5th or even older churches or basilicas. I suggest you to discover Ravenna or Aquileia.

[@joelwalsh]

The great churches of Ravenna like San Vitale were from the 6th century. Aquileia was destroyed in the 5th century. There are a number of churches from before 500 in Rome but most have been heavily rebuilt and few could be called monumental.@@giorgiodalbano3638

[@toboterxp8155]

I feel like another main cost point would be the art. Manual art is quite a bit more expensive today than it used to be, especially things like find masonry, frescos or statues. Simply because less people make them these days, so prices are quite high.

[@sefer-nv6cn]

For statues there exist 5D CNC machines that could cut stones according to the 3D models that are fed to them. So for those, it would probably be more affordable to be made today. For the frescoes, I'm not sure if there are printers that could print on walls or ceilings with the curvatures that exist on the basilica, so that would still be expensive for sure. Though an alternative would be to have the paintings done digitally and printed as ceiling wallpapers. The 5D CNC machines alone would cost around 40000 US dollars each if you buy them from China. I would assume that they would be at most around triple the cost when made in Europe, so 120000 USD each. As for the wallpaper printers, an HP Latex printer costs around 10000 USD.

[@JV-dj2ru]

@@sefer-nv6cn however most of the so called paintings in St Peters are actually mosaics made of millions of iny individual tiles, which I don't think there are any machines created yet that could recreate them

[@dabo5078]

@@JV-dj2ru Thats way easier, you could have printing machines just paint each individual tile, and than fit the pieces together.

[@Jacques_a_dit]

@@dabo5078i believe most of the cost and labor required for the mosaics would be the placement, each tile is extremely small and single color so even if you could replicate them relatively cheaply assembling would still require lots of skilled labor and demand a high cost.

[@nero9506]

​@@dabo5078That's... that's not how mosaics work, you know that right? You don't paint over the tiles, each single tile is a pixel that composes the final work.

[@theproceedings4050]

The amount that modern machinery would simplify the construction of the building is staggering. It'd be awesome to see what we could do stretching our investment to the same degree that they did to build St.Peters

[@jacobp8294]

The only true megaprojects I could point to today are our efforts in space really. The ISS had a multi-billion dollar budget and that is a monolith.

[@Russo-Delenda-Est]

@@DiotimaMantinea-ub6yr it would be a lot easier, cheaper, faster AND more accurate to the originals if you just scanned them into a computer and had a robot or a printer do it.

[@Laayon19]

We can't build like this anymore

[@obsidianjane4413]

@@Russo-Delenda-Est MIght as well have AI produce them. lol.

[@theproceedings4050]

@@Laayon19 Yes we can, we just don't.

[@jfaulk5717]

St Peter’s is the single most impressive structure I’ve ever seen in my life. The scale is so staggering that one wonders how the earth holds it up.

[@superhooch]

St Peter's Basilica blew my mind. It must surely be the most sensational, spectacular building ever built

[@AmJustMaiko]

Yeah been there at may of this year. It's something you gotta see for yourself to make an opinion. The stories and pictures doesn't do it justice, it just adds to it when you see it.

[@marcellocolona4980]

St Peter’s size is mind blowing. The entire Statue of Liberty including the base can fit under the dome with room to spare. The whole Project Apollo Saturn V stack could also fit under the dome with room to spare; I think the height of the stack on the launch pad was 365 feet. Simply phenomenal.

[@game_boyd1644]

The statue of liberty comment blew my mind

[@joshuamccormick5497]

That’s unbelievable

[@CatholicSamurai]

People can (wrongly) piss and moan about the Catholic Church spending money on fancy things all the day long, but in the end an absolute marvel like Saint Peter’s is truly a gift to the entire human race, considering that since its founding, it is pretty much unrivaled in its capacity of being free and open for every person to come and see and bask in such artistic beauty no matter their age, wealth, race, sex, nationality, social class, profession, religion, etc. If you weren’t aristocracy, the only way to see fine art and have access to the arts was typically through the Catholic Church. Its contributions in bringing the highest of art forms to the commonest of mankind remains unparalleled to this day. Saint Peter’s is a gift to the entire human race, and will continue to be gift enjoyed by millions of people each year long after we’re all dead.

[@TheAnthraxBiology]

1.5bn dollars for St Peters is the biggest CAP I've heard. Costing the same as Cologne Cathedral or a big skyscraper? No way, and then there's all the stuff in it + the crypts and stuff that neither included. Insane.

[@butterlord6868]

The mosaics and statues in the basilica should also be counted. Paintings cost millions of dollars, what more if a gigantic structure was filled to the brim with it.

[@captainufo4587]

The difference between the actual historical cost and the quotes you received perfectly explain why any modern day project/infrastructure ends up costing at least twice the estimated sum.

[@abc_cba]

I have seen both. Sadly, the horrible condition Taj Mahal is in with the insane neglect towards its restoration and conservation by their government made me feel sad. St. Peter's Basilica is preserved because, Italians care for monuments unlike anyone on Earth would - as it's been taken care of mostly by Italians.

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

I think the majority of Catholics live in the New World. Italians may be taking care of their own history...but the funding for it, is likely mostly pooled worldwide.

[@orion7763]

Given that St. Peter's is inside of Vatican City, a country independent from Italy, funding for maintenance of St. Peter's comes from Vatican City (ie the Catholic Church), not the Italian government. The Holy See- The government of Vatican City, has it's own budget and appropriates part of it to maintenance.

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

@@orion7763 Very true. "Italians" is likely applied loosely to mean the strong cultural value of historic preservation. Culture transcends borders.

[@giovannimoriggi5833]

​@@orion7763 The money of Vatican are strictly connected to Italian affairs, of course… Italy pays many donations through tax mechanisms as it does with a portion of its taxes, the so-called 8x1000 (eight per thousand). But the most important thing is that culture and know-how are not so Vatican. Vatican City has only existed since 1929!!

[@isaacs3413]

The difference between preservation of Athens and Rome is shocking.

[@michaell8749]

In modern construction terms the labor cost is based on averages not lowest or highest costs. Depending on location and labor availability it could range from $40 to 90$ per average man-hour. And this construction would have a large amount of highly skilled labor so I would definitely lean to the higher numbers for total cost. Of course the delays and overruns will most likely double your overall cost. So 20 billion would be closer. I work in heavy industrial construction.

[@chevalier3]

Yes, and that is not counting for the higher quality materials -- some of which may not even be available in that quantity any more; the higher cost of skilled stoneworkers today (as you mention); and the art and decoration.

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

And what about the cost of purchasing/housing/breeding beasts of burden? Costs of removing them when they died? Indirect costs - how to properly handle the sewage/garbage of the giant influx of workers, and their camps? Was their food purchased cheaply, in bulk? Or, did everyone have to buy their own food via wages? If so, they'd have to pay higher wages. Many interesting aspects I wish they kept records of. Fascinating.

[@BobGeogeo]

The Large Hadron Collider cost about $5 billion. A proposed even larger version is set at $23 billion.

[@grizzomble]

That's probably the best comparison actually. Multinational project pushing the limits of engineering

[@chumleyk]

It's not just 'large masonry structure', it's also all the artisan craftsmanship ontop of that. Imagine hiring all the artists of the world now to adorn the masonry. And remember, you'd have to get half the metal and tone from existing ruins of world heritage sites, just like the original. Your advisors just quoted a Las Vegas replica.

[@argylemanni280]

"It can't be done! It can't be done!" the modern man in a nutshell, so beat down by "if you know you know" that he can't conceive of mankind ever achieving anything great ever again

[@slizzysluzzer]

Why would you 'have to' use spolia? The only reason the Vatican did it was because it was *cheaper* than quarrying and transporting the blocks manually. You'd be doing it for roleplaying purposes. Stone is stone. Hand masonry is expensive but not impossible. The biggest costs (to the ancients) wasn't detailing work, but logistics. This is true for virtually all pre-industrial buildings. It cost huge amounts of money to transport heavy stone blocks by hand or by horse. All other factors being equal, just the existence of our mechanized freight network obliterates the costs involved and that's the real reason the modern estimate is so much lower.

[@Ntyler01mil]

There are still artisans that can make these things. Russia has recently rebuilt several very ornate and extremely large Orthodox churches that were torn down by the Soviets. In Romania, they're building what will be one of the largest churches in the world right now. It's covered in carved stone and mosaics. The same with Saint Sava in Belgrade.

[@s0nnyburnett]

@@argylemanni280 it can't be done because the people with talent are held back my licenses, regulations, useless degrees, stupid laws and a million other dumb things no one wants to put up with.

[@chevalier3]

Bingo. I just posted a reply to this effect.

[@GrandAncientOak]

The absence of power tools in ancient architecture highlights remarkable craftsmanship and ingenuity. While modern architecture impresses with engineering feats, it may lack the soulful beauty of the past. Efficiency drives today's construction methods, but we can learn from ancient techniques to strike a balance. By blending contemporary innovation with timeless craftsmanship, we can create structures that inspire awe and celebrate human creativity.

[@BamBamBigelow.]

The interiors of that Church is beyond world class! Edit: Who is gonna carve another Pieta?

[@kathrynstemler6331]

Michelangelo was also involved in the design of the building. One wonders which artists from our time will still be remembered 500 years from now. (Like, honest question. Some will (if humanity makes it that long) but it is hard to figure out who will still resonate (or who will get a pizza-loving crime fighting reptile cartoon treatment)

[@saveriocannata3447]

The chinese

[@jlb1397]

​@@saveriocannata3447😆

[@JJAB91]

@@saveriocannata3447 China in it's current form will collapse within the next 100 years

[@sierrabianca]

@BamBamBigelow. 1:1 replicas of the Pieta are made all the time, there are dozens if not hundreds of them around the world as we speak. Difficult work but far from impossible.

[@peternouwen]

1:00 in I stopped the video. Only because I thought of two projects that will provide some input: 1. The construction of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. That is a lovely example of how we would build a contemporary Saint Peter’s Basilica, how we would approach the project, what the costs would be and how the project might be funded. 2. the reconstruction of the Notre Dame in Paris. This is a lovely example of what would be necessary to literally reconstruct the current Basilica ‘as is’. (Because that is what they are going to do: reconstruct the building…)

[@antoniousai1989]

Notre Dame is a Gothic church and is extremely less bulky. Saint Peter has ridiculous proportions. Peripheral walls are like 3 meters thick

[@peterlynchchannel]

If we just take the value of the gold of those scudi, today would be about $220 per scudo, still making the cost of St. Peters Basilica about $10 billion.

[@johnsherfey3675]

If you average it out, with how much 28 chickens cost, 50lbs of flower, and a month of rent, it comes out around 314$ per scudo. Including gold prices, it goes to around 283$ per scudo, adding in the construction salary off balances the whole thing to around 406$ per scudo. After averaging the high estimate of 406$ and the low estimate of 283$ together, we get a mean of 345$ per scudo. Using this we get roughly 16,146,171,120$ USD. So, it's anywhere from 20 billion to 10 billion dollars USD.

[@gabrielandradeferraz386]

Meaning, the price in a way kind of stayed the same

[@peterlynchchannel]

@@johnsherfey3675 Nice! Thanks for sharing that.

[@Jonathold]

Yeah this guy doesn't know how to math apparently

[@TheKad33]

Saw the Pope here last year here! It is an absolute marvel to behold!

[@kaloarepo288]

Some thing I found out only the other day - Great Renaissance painter Raphael - his stunning painting called the "School of Athens" which shows all the great ancient Greek philosophers plus some medieval ones - well the grandiose arches and vaults in the painting are actually based on St Peters cathedral as it was being built!

[@jlb1397]

St. Peter's Basilica is not a Cathedral technically it is St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome the seat of the Pope

[@kaloarepo288]

@@jlb1397 Yes I knew that - the Vatican actually used to be outside of Rome's walls .The St John Lateran basilica and palace, politically, are part of the Vatican state as per the Concordat of the 1920's with Italy.

[@brad3388]

This is my absolute favorite thing you’ve put out, very interesting to me. Thanks

[@goldcanyon340.]

You brought to light something I’ve always wondered but never seen estimated before. Thanks!

[@CTMUSINGULARITY]

It’s not that we don’t have the same technical ability they did, it’s that we don’t believe the same things they did. We could never build something this beautiful.

[@khalidalali186]

Great work as always. Just lose the Masterworks sponsorship, it’s a scam.

[@ciaotiziocaius4899]

I'd love to see a modern replica of the Old Saint Peter's

[@lukehauser1182]

Right on!

[@midshipman8654]

i like these renaissance/early modern videos. its nice having a bit more detailed knowledge of these subjects as compared to ancient rome, while it still being old enough to feel exotic. And also it being a continuation of the topic of rome more broadly.

[@andrewtaylor9799]

$1.5 B seems low, at least for the U.S.A. Modern sports stadiums cost like $400 M and are much, much simpler and cruder structures with vastly cheaper materials (plastic, steel, and cement versus travertine stone and marble). Google "cost of denver bronco stadium"; it was actually $704 M in 2022 dollars. There is a reason top quality Italian suits sell for $5000 and up while a superficially similar suit at Target is ~$200.

[@westrim]

...The Italian suit is made of travertine?

[@allangibson8494]

A larger copy of St Peter’s was built in Africa in the late 1980’s. It cost $600 Million.

[@huwhitecavebeast1972]

@@allangibson8494 Yeah, I am going to be very skeptical about that, especially in regards to accuracy.

[@allangibson8494]

@@huwhitecavebeast1972 The $600 Million was the high end estimate. Labor costs in Africa are lower than in Europe and North America too. Location matters. Not paying for the land has an impact too.

[@giovannimoriggi5833]

​@@allangibson8494 It's not a copy, it's a joke. If that's a real replica, we live in Minecraft. And it's not even larger, St Peter's has still the largest cubature.

[@tjb25587]

Actually, the purchase power of gold (and silver) is quite consistent throughout the ages. An estimate based on the amount of gold could have been included.

[@Fabermain]

When Insane emperos etc. comes on audible it will be my next listen. ive search for it a few times as i found the Nakes statues one very entertaining. Humours at times, when the comparisons to modern-day life - really shined through.

[@Squagliafrittata]

According to the Italian 'Camera di commercio di Monza', the most valuable monument is the Eiffel tower in Paris. It was built using approximately 7 million francs (a reasonable price for a metallic structure in 1887-1889), but it's iconic shape and symbolism in art, cinema, history and its brand value, lead today in an astonishing evaluation of €434 billions (more than $450.000.000.000). I believe that some ancient building are even priceless considering the caliber of the artist involved in their construction. For example, the 'Pietà' of Michelangelo, as a statue in Saint Peter, should worth several hundreds of million alone! And there are some of the finest masterpiece inside that basilica ever made by western art and in the history of art in general

[@giorgiodalbano3638]

I also read the "Affari Italiani" article. However, it is not a question of the actual value of the artistic or architectural artefact, but of the turnover it produces today. For example, in a more far placement, the Colosseum make a turnover connected to its image of 338 million euros or the Pyramid of Giza 780 million euros. No wonder. The Eiffel Tower is the most recognizable symbol of Paris and France, more a brand than a monument. And is also the Europe's most visited monument.

[@SavageDragon999]

Thevalue of a building isn't just the price to build it. St Peter's is worth much more than $33 billion due to its historical significance and artistic value. A painting, after all, can perhaps cost max $100 in paint and canvas, but its value can be in the millions or tens of millions.

[@mesa9724]

@@TyaxCompNot to mention building another Eiffel Tower is super easy. Building another St. Peter’s Basilica is a ridiculously hard.

[@gre8]

The scale of this building really dawned on me when visiting the roof. It was so spacious and solid that I honestly felt like I was walking on an oddly shaped city square or plaza, and not the roof of a building. It even had a gift shop. When your building is so big it's roof has its own gift shop.

[@Big_Tex]

I think the cost of a new state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication plant is higher yet than anything quoted in this video.

[@amarillorica]

...... we live in a society

[@renaatsenechal]

This is totally ununderstandable but endlessly fascinating

[@jamescox8762]

Since I'm first here I just want to say I fucking love everything you put out Professor Ryan. The book, everything out of this channel, the podcast the second channel I consume every bit. The new book is more anticipated in my mind more than anything

[@brandon8214]

You should do a video like this for the Hagia Sophia! I believe there are already smaller scale versions being made which would probably help with estimating the cost

[@RobKristjansson]

The real question is: Do you ditch Maderno's facade so that you can actually be impressed by the dome from the piazza?

[@JerjerB]

Take it off!

[@pigeonsareugly]

So real for this

[@DeviateDefi4nt]

Clicked onto video, KZbin said 'skip to highlight?' - and it jumped 10 seconds from the end and explained the cost. Perfection, thank you!

[@Nonamearisto]

Keep in mind that if one adds the decorations and internal structures, such as the aforementioned baldachino, the cost is easily hundreds of millions more. Way more if one counts the cost of every treasure physically inside of the church, such as gold and silver chalices, monstrances, serving plates for the consecrated hosts, antique papal tiaras, and probably way more gold and silver items than those.

[@GunnarShaffer]

Amazing video!🎉

[@thejeffinvade]

Worth the wait indeed

[@stepps511]

What an intriguing video! I'm awed by the size and the estimated cost, tho' not surprised, really. Beauty "ain't" cheap! Thanks so much, Garrett!

[@Jonathold]

The estimated cost Garrett quotes is about 4 times what anybody else on earth has figured

[@gregcampwriter]

I can imagine a certain former U.S. president seeing this and thinking that the cost isn't too high for an excercise in self-aggrandisement.

[@YouTubemessedupmyhandle]

The project managers would soon ‘value engineer’ the scheme into a more regular shape, cut costs on labour, then blow more than the savings on management and poor decision making.

[@callenclarke371]

Very enjoyable episode. One thing I think is interesting about your book cover is that it appears to be distressed (ripped or torn at the edges) but this is in the art design. It makes it look like the sort of old used book that history-minded readers such as myself particularly treasure. I have many similar looking books with actual damage (not necessarily my fault) in my library. Best wishes on your channel. I have enjoyed your consistently interesting content.

[@boblolrus]

Interesting video!

[@douglaspkeatingjr3232]

I LOVED this video. Thank you for the research!!

[@Jonathold]

What research. The kind where he asks math questions to his 3 year old?

[@Vicus_of_Utrecht]

I was the one that failed. Fallen on bad times. And my puppy boy of 15 years just died Monday, another big fu to me. I had my project about halfway done. Great props for the two finishers! I get to see the video regardless of me. Peace & salutations

[@Vicus_of_Utrecht]

Those numbers are too conservative. I was hitting that halfway. Dangers of using homogenized software. I still pen and pencil. There's no tooling for machinery to carve intricate statues; that's human labor realm. I would like to know the details if sourcing (e.g. mining) was included in materials. If it was included; under what accounting? Materials is vague without added bylines. Damn my life. If I get to finishing (not likely for many months) I'll reach out. Anyways if I extrapolate my numbers, $23 bill is about ~

[@Vicus_of_Utrecht]

I mean no disrespect only disagreement. My approach was to replicate a build that would face the same as the original builders, but at modern costs. Modern estimates would be purchasing materials or labor at a discounted rate. What do I mean? The cost to create a specific tool, or part, for one singular thing, is far higher than purchasing from another party that specializes in making that part for a high volume of customers. Edit: For example; I have far lower estimates for the grading and foundation, and one part of the pillars portion. We have the means to do that far more efficiently (cheaply) than the ancients. However I feel too many specifics were "homogenized" or not included I merely disagree.

[@dlevi67]

Sorry for your loss (we lost our 'old' lady at just short of 13, six months ago). Would be interesting to see an update with your estimate when it's finished, possibly going in more depth on some of the assumptions (as per your comments below) - I would think Ryan and a lot of watchers/subscribers should find it interesting and worthwhile.

[@Vicus_of_Utrecht]

@@dlevi67 Bless you two. I am annoyed with myself I failed, I was hopeful but failed to finish when I do, then I'll come back. Things are not getting better. God bless everyone of you but I'm sorry I'll be away for some time. Turn off all TV and going to movie. Experience Life.

[@ewdryk2989]

Tradition, in any and every expression of it, still unmatched;

[@cjaquilino]

As someone from Westchester, NY it's hilarious to think about how *Yonkers* would host the St. Peter's Basilica.

[@blacksage2375]

To be fair the Romans might say that about the Vatican Hill. Why it’s not even one of the seven!

[@jonathanfiore]

Can it be in Cold Spring instead? 😅

[@Gainn]

Wow.. I only need to find 46,800,497 more Scudi and I can build my very own Basilica!

[@emilynelson5985]

I’d like to hear you do one of these regarding insulea. Everyone’s talking about affordable housing and the stuff we’re putting out seems like a step down in a lot of ways

[@renehenc4424]

Yep. +1

[@westrim]

Insulae were drafty, leaky, dusty buildings with a propensity for collapse due to their often shoddy construction. What led you to believe they're in any way superior to even 1800s tenements let alone modern construction?

[@emilynelson5985]

@@westrim That's quite the generalization but I think "drafty, leaky, dusty and above all poorly built apartments" is a pretty serviceable definition of tenement. The 1800s? There was both the great Chicago fire of 1871 and a great Chicago fire of 1874 and you would think they'd learn the lesson but the 690 acre worlds Columbian Exposition opened in 1893 and was burned to the ground by the end of 1894. As for modern apartment construction it's worth lookin into Ulsan Apartment block, Grenfell, Al Nassar Tower, Baku Residential Flats, Jiaozhou Road and the Dusseldorf Airport.

[@v.g.r.l.4072]

A fascinating and surprising video, whose content confirms, however, the insightful mind of the host. I do not think that anyone else had undertaken the work of calculating the figures as he. Thanks.

[@Jonathold]

Literally hundreds if not thousands of people. And he's the only one with a 32B figure. Everyone else, literally EVERYONE else, says 6-8 billion, which is what the math would say from the data he himself included in the video, except he did a stupid. He compared wages instead of the cost of gold.

[@red.aries1444]

I think the guess of your first project engineer is more realistic. But only for the start of the project! Never underestimate the cost explosions if your project needs so much time. I'm sure after 27 years the estimated costs from the beginning would more then double. And he hasn't included the bronze altar and baldachin, he may have forgotten some other details too. So in the end a modern exact replica wouldn't really be cheaper to built. 🙂 The use of concrete for the parts where no one would see it could reduce some of the costs of labour, but as this church isn't really a modular building the sheathing couldn't be reused as in scycrapers or other modern buildings.

[@disposabull]

I think the estimates are too high. The Ivory Coast built a basilica similar but larger than St Peter's in the 1980's, it cost $164 million in 1989 dollars. If you are going to do a cost estimate you should do it with Italian labour costs and also realise that the cost of Italian marble in Italy is a lot cheaper than in the USA. Shipping lumps of rock half way round the world is very expensive, driving it a few miles is pretty cheap.

[@bugglemagnum6213]

i get that you're joking but they know exactly everything that's going to have to go into the project from the start, because its a replica

[@hagerty1952]

Another great thought experiment! Already ordered the book a month ago. Can't wait!

[@Jonathold]

His book will teach you that 1+1=3. He can't fathom math. 8 Billion somehow became 32 billion.

[@hagerty1952]

@@Jonathold - Isn't that more like 4+4=32? Doesn't matter. The historical information and presentation are worth it!

[@dinoflame9696]

That's a *lot* of scooties!!

[@rewanji]

Fun fact - the official portuguese currency up until 2001 (the Euro year..) was the Escudo…

[@gcfournier3386]

Love this, thank you

[@JJAB91]

Interesting timing on the video, I was thinking of this not too long ago. I've been reading Toaru and in one volume St. Peter's Basilica is destroyed and I thought to myself how much it would cost to rebuild it. Sure enough I see your video pop up.

[@Bertie_Ahern]

Given that the interiors are priceless, it obviously wouldn't be possible to come up with a modern equivalent cost. But take today's most expensive artworks and fill the Basilica with - say - 1000 of them (?), and perhaps that would give an approximate idea of the cost of reproducing some of the artistic value within.

[@rickb3078]

400k subs? Congrats!

[@cooperbeggs]

Still crazy expensive, but at the same time it was built over the course of 120 years. The costs were spread out pretty aggressively. Even at the 33b estimate it would be only 275 mill a year, which is still a ton ngl.

[@nikolajevtic9546]

Can you do estimate for Great pyramid of Gyza, both ancient cost and cost with modern machinery.

[@magnificus8581]

Always get 3 bids!

[@tdoran616]

Such a building would never be made today. Now all we build wouldn’t last 100 years

[@Hoffenboffen7]

What? There are plenty of things we build today that will last 100 years. Sure, maybe not strip malls and crappy suburban housing, but you can't compare one of the most elaborate pieces of construction in human history to the lowest common denominator today.

[@robertgiles9124]

@@Hoffenboffen7 He is just full of hot air. People love hyperbole. Besides the ancient temples in India were so much more amazing than St. Peters.

[@tdoran616]

@@robertgiles9124 both are completely different in how they were built and when they were built. How are they even comparable?

[@robertgiles9124]

@@tdoran616 They are BOTH famous buildings. Did you notice the video compares them? Not like I compared a tomato to a dinosaur.

[@Ntyler01mil]

There are some recent churches that are similar enough to St. Peter's in design and scale that they could present a useful comparison. For instance, the People's Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest is being built for €185 million. It's about one fifth the volume of St. Peter's, but has a dome that is just as tall as St. Peter's and nearly as big in diameter. It has a similar degree of ornateness with ample carved stone and the interior will be covered with marble revetment and mosaics like St. Peter's. The church is also accompanied by a large colonnaded square. The nave of the church is also as tall as St. Peter's. The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade was recently completed at a cost of around €100 million. It is about one tenth the size of St. Peter's Basilica by volume. It's about 250 feet tall and has a large central dome that is nearly as large as St. Peter's. It is also similarly ornate. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was completed in 2000. It's about 1/15th the size of St. Peter's by volume. However it is 338 feet tall with a large central dome. It was completed at a cost of $360 million. Assuming costs would increase linearly with volume, these examples would indicate a cost somewhere between ~$1 billion and ~$5 billion.

[@Ntyler01mil]

A less recent example would be the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, which has a similar configuration to St. Peter's but at about half the scale. This works out to a volume that is only 1/8th of St. Peter's. It was completed in 1914 for $3 million, which works out to $90 million in today's dollars. Assuming that the cost increase linearly with volume, that works out to $720,000,000. Our Lady of Victory in Lackawanna is basically a half-scale copy of St. Peter's. It was completed in 1926 for $3.2 million. That works out to $55 million in today's dollars and about $500 million when adjusted to the volume of St. Peter's. There's also the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Côte d'Ivoire, which is designed to resemble St. Peter's and is about as big. It was completed in 1990 at a cost of $300 million, which would be about $700,000,000. Considering all the stated examples, it seems like a conservative estimate would be around $1.5 billion, which is in line with the lower estimate you were given. However, the Moscow example does show that a significantly higher cost is also possible.

[@danielefabbro822]

Yeah all good but these are modern churches. Not something done 600 years ago.

[@Ntyler01mil]

​@@danielefabbro822 - These churches may be “modern” in the sense that they were built more recently, but they are masonry buildings with very ornate stone decoration and cladding. They all have layouts and overall forms that are similar to St. Peter's Basilica. That question was how much it would cost to build St. Peter's today with modern techniques and equipment. Naturally, the cost of similar churches that were built recently is a good jumping off point.

[@danielefabbro822]

@@Ntyler01mil kinda, yes.

[@jvwilliams]

New book!!

[@franwex]

Very interesting video. Good research and comparisons to modern times. Modern times also don’t focus all their economic input to projects like how they did in the past. Modern humans are more diversified, or rather-the projects are. We need roads, train tracks, highways, etc and those take the funds over big projects like the basilica.

[@scottabc72]

Very interesting video, thank you but I really think you should have included reference to Yamousoukro Basilica in Cote D'Ivoire. It is now the largest church in the world now by some estimates and while not quite a replica of St Peters, its heavily influenced by it. The Yamasoukro Basilica was built in the 80's for around $4-500 million but with less luxurious interior design.

[@WinstonSmithGPT]

But early Idi Amin Style is a bit cheaper.

[@scottabc72]

@@WinstonSmithGPT? Amin was in Uganda, this is Cote D'Ivoire/Ivory Coast

[@well9179]

​@@WinstonSmithGPTAmin was muslim

[@giovannimoriggi5833]

Real fact: St Peter cubature is still the biggest for a church

[@BlindMango]

6:05 - I love the Assassin's Creed reference there lol

[@TheGrenadier97]

Cost alone is a secondary aspect to the skill and passion these people had with limited technologies. Where these now?

[@Literarydilettante]

I was waiting for the title to be finalised, but after four changes I couldn't wait anymore.

[@allangibson8494]

The LNG plant on Barrow Island cost US$76 Billion dollars to build in 2015.

[@uselessDM]

Funny thing about the two estimates given is that the people building the replica surely would go with the cheap estimate, but at the end of they day the total cost would be much closer to the high estimate.

[@hedgehog3180]

I think the method of comparing wages doesn't really work simply because living standards today are so much higher and that's obviously reflected by the wages.

[@raffriff42]

Eyeballing some maps, it looks like the Baths of Caracalla (which are described in a fascinating ToldInStone video) was about 150-200% the size of St. Peter's Basilica.

[@emperorofpluto]

The Baths of Caracalla was one of many Roman buildings they stripped and destroyed to build that monstrosity.

[@daveweiss5647]

Monstrosity?

[@kevindoran9389]

You may as well call the baths a monstrosity too then because they almost certainly plunderd an older structure aswell. Preservation of the past is mostly a modern invention.

[@danielefabbro822]

​@@kevindoran9389there was nothing before. When something is ruined, you just destroy it to build something better. Rome is eternal, that means that the City changes through times.

[@Forlfir]

Watching this while going to work and seeing St Peters from the bus lol

[@orsiniproductionstudios3042]

The Ezio reference at 6:02. 😂

[@robynmorales6778]

Hey amazing author, how long till its on audible? Loved the first one

[@toldinstone]

Glad to hear it! The audio version will be released on October 3.

[@EagleRiderStudios]

It’s too bad we don’t build anything like this anymore

[@michaeijn67]

St. Peter's Basilica main designed is literally designed after a huge Roman bath house of ancient times 😂😂😂

[@BasBruurs]

Please tell me you are doing the audiobook yourself this time. :) Can't wait.

[@TheZacman2]

It's quite charming that your channel's intro is literally the 'lick'.

[@Atomhaz]

In the 1960s one of the denominations of coins in Chile was an “escudo”. The name has to be derived from the Scudo?

[@stvdagger8074]

Scudo was derived from the Latin scutum ("shield"). The coins featured a shield on one of the faces. Escudo was a variation of that used by Spain and Portugal and several of their colonies continued to use that name after independence. Cape Verde is the only country still using an Escudo as currency.

[@Atomhaz]

@@stvdagger8074 fascinating. Thank you for the reply.

[@Stryke607]

Using Cologne Cathedral as an example for a "modern building" compared the St. Peters is a bit odd, given that it is significantly older. It just took much longer to finish

[@stirfrywok2927]

Worth every scoot

[@business_max]

Someone is doing some title optimization :) From estimating the cost, to Taj Mahal, to Burj :D

[@Kai_Peters]

St. Peter's Basilica is a work of beauty that has stood for half a millenium and will endure for many more. It is a shame that modern constructions tend to be soulless abominations, seemingly built to be a sore on the eye, meant to degenerate cityscapes like parasitic hives of glass and concrete

[@huwhitecavebeast1972]

Human anthills, I call them.

[@EDMisalive]

Now That's Some Topic To Pull People in

[@someguy9607]

The thing is - it is priceless. You can't ask Michelangelo to do all those statues again, Botticelli to decorate one more Cappella Sistina. Please, leave the replicas in Las Vegas

[@RoyalBaconist]

I know classical and late antiquity Rome is more in your wheelhouse but I do appreciate that you are willing to branch out to later periods of Roman history. I would love to see more of content like this.

[@p07a]

What I’m surprised is that the rent = 3x income rule stays roughly the same back then huh. At least it translates to “if you’re a construction worker in Rome, you make 3x the rent of a cheap place plus a bit more”

[@deoproximo1572]

That's the cost of the Beijing Olympics, but unlike the Olympics it's still being used and isn't a wasteland like so many Olympic venues are.

[@namenlos3679]

I hope it will be deconstructed soon

[@haroldberserker]

St. Peter is definitely one of those buildings that if we had lost in time we would be like “Damn, wonder what it would look like in real life”

[@furrybear57]

The original St Peter's basilica, built in the 4th century, IS definitely one of those buildings we have lost in time and we now wonder what it looked like in real life.

[@RobespierreThePoof]

​@@furrybear57no need to wonder, there's plenty of historical documentation including drawings. We have a very firm idea of what the first St Peters looked like

[@lynxcato3327]

@@furrybear57 The Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome is similar in style to the original St Peter.

[@jeremycole1341]

Will the new book have an audio book as well?