Rome is the city that boasts the greatest number of obelisks in the world.
Most of these distinctive monuments are Egyptians and were transported to the Eternal City by the emperors of the first centuries after Christ.
Some imitations, though, were created during the Roman age with the same granite used by the Egyptians either without the inscriptions or with hieroglyphics as a copy of the models of the Pharaoh age but with many mistakes. In ancient Egypt the obelisks had deep religious significance as well as showing the royalty of the Pharaoh.
In Rome on the other hand, the obelisks were symbols of power and victory and were mostly used to embellish circuses, temples and tombs, neglecting all original inscriptions that covered the monuments.
A large number of obelisks were damaged in the Middle Ages and were restored by Pope Sisto V (1585-1590). He undertook significant transformations and restorations of the city and wanted the obelisks to be moved to the hinge spots of the Holy City. Therefore, he contributed to transform the features of Rome from a Medieval into a Baroque town.
The oldest and tallest obelisk in Rome is the one in the middle of the Square of S. Giovanni in Laterano. Originally, it was built in front of the Temple of Amon in Karnak by order of Pharaoh Tutmosi III (XV century BC). In 357 AD, Emperor Constant II, had a special ship built in order to carry the monument to Rome, and place it right in the center of the Circus Maximus.
The obelisk in the “Piazza del Popolo” is known as the Flaminio obelisk named after the ancient “Via Flaminia” and is the second oldest one in Rome. This was also brought to Rome by Augusto in 10 AD in order to decorate the Circus Maximus.
The two obelisks fell when the circus went into decline and disuse, and were buried under the rising street level. At the end of XVI Century, Pope Sisto V had them restored and placed in their current locations.
The obelisk standing in St. Peter’s Square does not have hieroglyphics, but it is surely Rome’s most famous obelisk from ancient times. Emperor Caligula wanted the obelisk to be transported from Elaiopoli (Cairo City) to Rome in 37 AD, in order to decorate Nero’s Circus.
There are many legends about this extraordinary monument. The most well known is the belief that Julius Cesar’s ashes were stored in the top of the obelisk.
In Montecitorio Square, there stands the obelisk of Pharaoh Psammetico II (VI BC). Emperor Augusto brought it to Rome in order to use it as a gnomon of a huge sundial devised by the brilliant Agrippa. The spire was positioned to throw its shadow in the exact center of the “Ara Pacis” on the emperor’s birthday.
A certain number of small obelisks of approximately 4.5 meters of height come, from the area of the “Iseum Campense”, the Temple of Iside and Serapide in “Campo Marzio”. Of the magnificent structure of the temple there is nothing left but a memory. All the obelisks were in recent times relocated to the center of the most characteristic squares of Rome.
One of these sits on the elephant statue attributed to Bernini – the famous “pulcin of the Minerva”, located behind the Pantheon. The precious obelisk dates back to the age of Ramses II.
In front of the Pantheon, a second obelisk of the same origins, adorns the late-Renaissance fountain.
The small obelisk of “Villa Celimontana” at the Celio is less well- known. It was part of the private collection of the Mattei family. The inscriptions date it back to the age of Ramses II.
A fourth small spire, crowned by a star, is situated on the ancient site of the Baths of Diocletian. It rests on a small monument in memory of the Italian soldiers who fell in the battle of Dogali (Ethiopia, 1887). Another obelisk of similar dimensions and origin was located in the gardens of Villa Medici , The French Academy, on top of the Pincio, until 1790, when it was taken to Florence, where it remains. In the XIX Century a copy of the spire was made to replace the original one.
One of the most famous Roman obelisks is certainly the one that stands over the Fountain of the Rivers by Bernini in Piazza Navona. Placed in the center of the stadium of Domitian, it has the odd distinction of being decorated with “fake” Egyptian hieroglyphics inaccurately copied by Roman stonecutters with many mistakes.
As in the previous case, the obelisk that rises from the top of the famous Spanish Steps is also in the Egyptian style. This monument is called “Sallustian” because it was formerly placed in the Sallustian Gardens (I Century).
The obelisk that one admires in the gardens of the Pincio instead, is a Roman reproduction of the age of the Emperor Hadrian. The same for the twin obelisks that, created in Rome, once decorated the entrance of the “Mausoleum of Augustus” in the “Campo Marzio”.
Nowadays, thanks to Pope Sisto V, one can be admired in the Esquilino Square, facing the apse of S. Mary Major’s Basilica, and the other – the Obelisk Quirinale – in Quirinale Square, in front of the the Quirinal Palace.
