DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0017
Ch. I.
THROUGH ITALY.
7
stored, as ten now stand in different squares of
the city. Another, which has been too much
shattered for re-erection, was employed in the
reparation of that which stands in the Piazza del
Monte Citorio. It is probable that others may
hereafter be discovered in the neighborhood of
an Imperial sepulchre, or amidst the ruins of a
circus; in the decoration of which edifices they
seem to have been principally employed.
The most remarkable of the obelisks are, that
in the Piazza del Popolo, that in the centre of
the colonnade of S. Peter’s, and that which
stands in the square of St.John. The one be-
fore S. Peter’s stood in the circus of Nero, that
is a few hundred paces from its present site, and
was removed from the side to the front of the
church by Sixtus Quintus. It is a single piece
of granite, about eighty feet in length, and with
its pedestal and the cross that tops it, rises to
the height of an hundred and thirty-six feet.
The two others anciently adorned the Circus
Maximus, and were thence transported by the
above-mentioned spirited pontiff to their present
situations. That in the Piazza del Popolo is
ninety feet in height, including its cross and
pedestal. That erected near St. John Lateran
is the highest of the obelisks, and including the
ornaments of the fountain on which it reposes.
THROUGH ITALY.
7
stored, as ten now stand in different squares of
the city. Another, which has been too much
shattered for re-erection, was employed in the
reparation of that which stands in the Piazza del
Monte Citorio. It is probable that others may
hereafter be discovered in the neighborhood of
an Imperial sepulchre, or amidst the ruins of a
circus; in the decoration of which edifices they
seem to have been principally employed.
The most remarkable of the obelisks are, that
in the Piazza del Popolo, that in the centre of
the colonnade of S. Peter’s, and that which
stands in the square of St.John. The one be-
fore S. Peter’s stood in the circus of Nero, that
is a few hundred paces from its present site, and
was removed from the side to the front of the
church by Sixtus Quintus. It is a single piece
of granite, about eighty feet in length, and with
its pedestal and the cross that tops it, rises to
the height of an hundred and thirty-six feet.
The two others anciently adorned the Circus
Maximus, and were thence transported by the
above-mentioned spirited pontiff to their present
situations. That in the Piazza del Popolo is
ninety feet in height, including its cross and
pedestal. That erected near St. John Lateran
is the highest of the obelisks, and including the
ornaments of the fountain on which it reposes.