On the first day of a Jubilee year which which occurs every 25 years (the last one in 2000), the Pope strikes the brick wall with a silver hammer and opens it to the pilgrims. From inside the basilica, the door is walled up. The doors are closed by the Pope himself at the end of the Jubilee Year.

The ceremony dates back to the Jubilee of 1500, under the papacy of Alexander VI, 200 years after the institution of this solemn pardon by Bonifacius VIII, who established that the ceremony would be repeated every 100 years. Afterwards, Clement VI reduced the period to every 50 years, Urban VI to 35 and Paul II to 25.

Artist: Vico Consorti. Since 24 December 1949 these doors have replaced the former wooden panels made in 1749. In 1949 the Bishop Francesco Von Streng donated the two bronze panels for the Swiss Catholics, as an ex-voto, because his land was saved from war.

- Consorti (online March 2013)