{{Short description|Egyptian obelisk in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City}} [[File:Obelisk_of_St._Peter.jpg|thumb|Vatican Obelisk]] The '''Vatican Obelisk''' is an [[List of Egyptian obelisks|Egyptian obelisk]], one of the thirteen ancient [[List of obelisks in Rome|obelisks of Rome]]. This obelisk is located in [[St. Peter's Square]], in [[Vatican City]]. It is the only ancient obelisk in Rome that has never fallen.<ref name="Tronzo 2005 p. 26">{{cite book | last=Tronzo | first=W. | title=St. Peter's in the Vatican | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-521-64096-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=THmySuXfArIC&pg=PA26 | access-date=2024-02-24 | page=26 | archive-date=2024-02-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224100236/https://books.google.com/books?id=THmySuXfArIC&pg=PA26 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Dibner 2017 p. ">{{cite book | last=Dibner | first=B. | title=Moving the Obelisks:: A Chapter in Engineering History in which the Vatican Obelisk in Rome in 1586 was Moved by Muscle Power | publisher=Muriwai Books | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-78720-481-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BAUqDwAAQBAJ | access-date=2024-02-24 | page= | archive-date=2024-02-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224103329/https://books.google.com/books?id=BAUqDwAAQBAJ | url-status=live }}</ref>
Made of red [[granite]], it has a height of 25.3 meters and, together with the cross and the base (composed of four bronze lions, by [[Prospero Antichi]]), it reaches almost 40 meters.
It is of Egyptian origin, devoid of any [[hieroglyphs]] and titles. It is not known if the obelisk's inscriptions were erased before it was moved to Rome, or if it never had any. The obelisk comes, according to Pliny,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:phi,0978,001:36:14 |title=Pliny the Elder, the Natural History, BOOK XXXVI. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF STONES., CHAP. 14.—OBELISKS. |access-date=2024-02-24 |archive-date=2022-12-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221202084020/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:phi,0978,001:36:14 |url-status=live }}</ref> from the city of [[Heliopolis (ancient Egypt)|Heliopolis]] on the Nile. Before coming to Rome, it stood at the ''Forum Iulii'' of [[Alexandria]] in Egypt. Emperor [[Caligula]] had it shipped to Rome in 40 AD, and placed it at the center of the [[Circus of Nero]], the site of which is, in modern times, mostly in Vatican City. It remained in this position after the circus fell into disuse, occupied by a [[necropolis]]. In the 16th century it was moved next to the [[Old St. Peter's Basilica]], at the Rotonda di Sant'Andrea.
== History == {{incomplete section|date=May 2026}} [[File:De oprichting van de obelisk op het St. Pietersplein, RP-P-OB-207.655.jpg|thumb|500px|Moving of the obelisk - the left hand side shows the Obelisk topped by the globe, as it stood next to Old St. Peter's Basilica, whilst the right hand side shows the Obelisk after its relocation, with the cross atop it.]] Having stood in the same location in Rome since c.40 AD, it was moved 260 meters at the behest of [[Pope Sixtus V]] in a single day on September 10, 1586.<ref name="Tronzo 2005 p. 26"/> The work was carried out under the direction of the architect [[Domenico Fontana]] who required thirteen months of preparatory work, 800 men, 160 horses and 45 winches to carry out the work. It was the first of Rome's obelisks to be raised in modern times. In the uplift operations there was a famous cry of a certain sailor Benedetto Bresca: [[:it:Acqua alle funi|Acqua alle funi]] ("Water on the ropes!"), in order to avoid the breakage of the ropes that were about to give in under the great weight of the obelisk.
The idea of moving the obelisk was first raised by [[Pope Nicholas V]].<ref name="Hall 2005 p. 282">{{cite book | last=Hall | first=M.B. | title=Rome | publisher=Cambridge University Press | series=Artistic Centers of the Italian Renaissance | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-521-62445-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gt5gtrqoKOIC&pg=PA282 | access-date=2024-02-24 | page=282 | archive-date=2024-02-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224103328/https://books.google.com/books?id=gt5gtrqoKOIC&pg=PA282 | url-status=live }}</ref> Sixtus V's relocation was considered to be a symbolic act, illustrating the triumph of Christianity over Paganism. Following the successful relocation, Fontana was commissioned to move three smaller obelisks in Rome.<ref name="Moffett Fazio Wodehouse 2003 p. 30-IA56">{{cite book | last1=Moffett | first1=M. | last2=Fazio | first2=M.W. | last3=Wodehouse | first3=L. | title=A World History of Architecture | publisher=Laurence King | series=Monographics (Series : Laurence King Publishing) | year=2003 | isbn=978-1-85669-371-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IFMohetegAcC&pg=PA30-IA56 | access-date=2024-02-24 | page=30-IA56 | archive-date=2024-02-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224103328/https://books.google.com/books?id=IFMohetegAcC&pg=PA30-IA56 | url-status=live }}</ref>
A detailed account of the relocation was published in ''Della transportatione dell'obelisco Vaticano e delle fabriche di Sisto V'' (Rome, 1590).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=350916&word= |title=New York Public Library digital collections |access-date=2024-02-24 |archive-date=2012-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120501032624/http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=350916&word= |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://purl.pt/6256/1/index.html | title=Della trasportatione dellªobelisco Vaticano et delle fabriche di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto | access-date=2024-02-24 | archive-date=2014-10-24 | archive-url=https://arquivo.pt/wayback/20141024223112/http://purl.pt/6256/1/index.html | url-status=live }}</ref> The astronomer [[Ignazio Danti]] is known to have assisted Fontana in this work.
According to a popular medieval legend, the ancient bronze globe that crowned the obelisk was believed to contain the ashes of [[Julius Caesar]] or [[Trajan]]. On the occasion of the obelisk's relocation, the globe was presented to the city by Sixtus V. It was placed first on the [[Marforio]] fountain, then in 1692 on the balustrade of the [[Piazza del Campidoglio]]. In 1848 it was brought into the [[Palazzo dei Conservatori]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=H. |editor-last=Stuart Jones |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066032957&seq=203 |title=A Catalogue of the Ancient Sculptures Preserved in the Municipal Collections of Rome: The Sculptures of the Palazzo dei Conservatori |place=London |date=1926 |at=p. 171, no. 3}}</ref>
The granting of a perpetual indulgence of ten years and as many quarantines to those who, in front of the obelisk, venerate the cross of Christ by reciting [[Lord's Prayer]] and [[Hail Mary]], made it assumed that Sixtus V had placed in the great bronze cross placed on the obelisk a particle of the [[True Cross]] on September 26, 1586, albeit during a later restoration of the cross, no relic was found.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}
==Inscriptions== The obelisk and its base contain a number of inscriptions. Two ancient inscriptions at the base of the shaft describe its original dedication in Rome, four inscriptions on the pedestal composed by Cardinal [[Silvio Antoniano]] describe its rededication in 1586, and lower down, in smaller script, is an acknowledgement of [[Domenico Fontana]]'s role in the moving of the obelisk.
{| class="wikitable" ! !! Obelisk shaft !! South (base) !! North (base) !! East (base) !! West (base) !! North (base, lower) |- | Latin || DIVO CAESARI DIVI F AVGVSTO TI CAESARI DIVI AVGVSTI F AVGVSTO SACRVM || SIXTVS V PONT MAX / OBELISCVM VATICANVM / DIS GENTIVM / IMPIO CVLTV DICATVM / AD APOSTOLORVM LIMINA / OPEROSO LABORE TRANSTVLIT / ANNO M D LXXXVI PONT II || SIXTVS V PONT MAX / CRUCI INVICTAE / OBELISCVM VATICANVM / AB IMPVRA SVPERSTITIONE / EXPIATVM IVSTIVS / ET FELICIVS CONSECRAVIT / ANNO MDLXXXVI PONT II || ECCE CRVX DOMINI / FVGITE / PARTES ADVERSAE / VICIT LEO / DE TRIBV IVDA || CHRISTVS VINCIT / CHRISTVS REGNAT / CHRISTVS IMPERAT / CHRISTVS AB OMNI MALO / PLEBEM SVAM / DEFENDAT || DOMINICVS FONTANA EX PAGO MILI / AGRI NOVOCOMENSIS TRANSTVLIT / ET EREXIT |- | English translation || Sacred to the Divine Caesar Augustus, son of the Divine, to Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the Divine Augustus || Sixtus V, Pontifex Maximus, by a laborious task, transferred to the threshold of the Apostles the Vatican obelisk, dedicated in impious reverence to the gods of the heathen, in the year 1586, the second of his pontificate || Sixtus V, Pontifex Maximus, consecrated to the invincible cross the Vatican obelisk, expiated of impure superstition, in the year 1586, the second of his pontificate || Behold, the Cross of the Lord. Take flight hostile ranks, the [[Lion of Judah]], has conquered || Christ conquers. Christ reigns. Christ commands. May Christ defend his people from all evil || Domenico Fontana, of the town of Mili in the territory of Como, moved and erected this |}
==Gallery== <gallery> File:Maarten_van_Heemskerck_-_Santa_Maria_della_Febbre,_Vatican_Obelisk,_Saint_Peter's_Basilica_in_construction_(1532).jpg|The obelisk in the [[Circus of Nero]] [[Maarten van Heemskerck]], 1532 File:0_Sale_Sistine_II_-_Salle_des_Archives_pontificales_(1).jpg|Mural (1585–1588) in the [[Vatican Library]] of the re-erection in [[St. Peter's Square]] File:Bronze globe and spike from the top of the Vatican obelisk (Rome, Mus Cap 1065).jpg|Bronze globe and spike from the top of the obelisk, now in the [[Capitoline Museums]] File:Circus of Nero.png|One possible modern interpretation<ref>Based on "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100305113143/http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/images.htm Outline of St. Peter's, Old St. Peter's, and Circus of Nero]".</ref> </gallery>
== References == {{reflist}}
== Bibliography == {{Commons}} * Armin Wirsching, ''Obelisken transportieren und aufrichten in Aegypten und in Rom'', Norderstedt 2007, 3rd. ed. 2013 ISBN 978-3-8334-8513-8 * ''L'Italia. Roma'' (guida rossa), [[Touring Club Italiano]], Milano 2004 * Cesare D'Onofrio, ''Gli obelischi di Roma'', Bulzoni, 1967
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Vatican City]] [[Category:Ancient Egyptian obelisks]] [[Category:Obelisks in Rome]]