The hall has a seating capacity of 6,300, designed in reinforced concrete by the Italian architect Pier Luigi Nervi and completed in 1971.

[1] It was constructed on land donated by the Knights of Columbus and is named for Pope St. Paul VI.

[2] It lies partially in the Vatican City but mostly in Rome: the Italian part of the building is treated as an extraterritorial area of the Holy See, and is used by the pope as an alternative to St. Peter's Square when conducting his Wednesday morning General Audience.

It is dominated by an 800-quintal (80-tonne) bronze/copper-alloy[3] sculpture by Pericle Fazzini entitled La Resurrezione (Italian for The Resurrection).

[6][7] The system was donated by SolarWorld, a German manufacturer, and valued at $1.5 million.