Rome meanwhile began to assume her present aspect as a city, by the extensive architectural undertakings which Sixtus set on foot.

He loved building; but he was no lover of antiquity.
For pagan monuments of art he showed a monastic animosity, dispersing or mutilating the statues of the Vatican and Capitol; turning a Minerva into an image of the Faith by putting a cross in her hand; surmounting the columns of Trajan and Antonine with figures of Peter and Paul; destroying the Septizonium of Severus, and wishing to lay sacrilegious hands on Caecilia Metella's tomb.

To mediaeval relics he was hardly less indifferent.

The old buildings of the Lateran were thrown down to make room for the heavy modern palace.

But, to atone in some measure for these acts of vandalism, Sixtus placed the cupola upon S.Peter's and raised the obelisk in the great piazza which was destined to be circled with Bernini's colonnades.