[1] The door is composed of ten panels which depict the Christian meaning of death.
The top half of the door depicts the deaths of Jesus and Mary, spread across two panels.
The two central panels show a vine branch and wheat, which are shown as being turned into wine and bread in symbolic tribute to the Eucharist.
Beneath these depictions are a row of six animals: a blackbird, a dormouse, a hedgehog, an owl, a tortoise and a raven.
Officials were also wary of Manzù's professed communist ideology and allusions to executions of fascists in the panels of the door.