The Jubilee Museum is proud to showcase this incredible model of St. Peter’s Basilica this summer as we celebrate our 20th Anniversary.
FAST FACTS:
Father Bob Simon, the artist behind the LEGO® brick Vatican Model, has been a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania for 27 years.
On September 21, 2014, Fr. Simon laid the first bricks of his Vatican model. This is his first large-scale build.
He was inspired to begin this project in preparation and celebration of the Pastoral Visit of Pope Francis to Philadelphia.
His finished construction was displayed at Brickfair 2015 in Virginia, where it won both “Best Historical” and “Public Favorite” “Brickees” prizes.
Setup of the model takes up to two days, with three people working on the structure’s 25 different sections.
The Piazza has over 44,000 cobblestones sitting atop 12,000 tan tiles. There are over 6,000 round bricks that make up the columns of the Colonnade.
The model is worth $10,000 in LEGO® bricks and took over 10 months to build.
The structure is about 14’ x 7’ x 7’ and weighs about 100 pounds.
All of the pieces are certified LEGO® bricks—none of which were altered in any way.
Simon tapped into his creativity to repurpose LEGO® pieces in unconventional ways, such as using the LEGO® life preserver pieces as the windows dotting the Vatican’s iconic dome.
A custom LEGO® Minifigure of Fr. Simon can found near the obelisk, poised in contemplation of the splendor of the Vatican. He has visited the Vatican five times