List of obelisks in Rome
Rome is the city with the most ancient obelisks and is therefore also called the city of obelisks . Eight ancient Egyptian and five ancient Roman obelisks have been erected in the city area, and another obelisk is rumored to be buried near the church of San Luigi dei Francesi .
Most of the obelisks were brought to Rome from Egypt by the Roman emperors , and some were made directly in Rome. They were raised up again by the popes and placed in new locations. Some of them were intended to serve as signposts for pilgrims , for example in front of the Lateran or at Santa Maria Maggiore .
The Mussolini Obelisk, created in the 20th century and inaugurated by Mussolini on November 4, 1932 on the Foro Mussolini (today Foro Italico ), occupies a special position . An ancient Ethiopian stele stood in the city until 2005 .
Overview
The obelisks are listed according to their origin and their height.
The following obelisk was also temporarily in Rome
Surname | origin | Obtained height (m) | Weight (t) | Former location in Rome | Location today | Year of return |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Axum Obelisk | Ethiopian | 24 | 160 | Piazza di Porta Capena | Axum , Ethiopia | 2005 |
See also
literature
- Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, London 1929, pp. 366-371. (on-line)
- Cesare D'Onofrio: Gli obelischi di Roma. Bulzoni, Rome 1967.
- Erik Iversen: Obelisks in exile. Volume 1: The obelisks of Rome. Gad, Copenhagen 1968.
- Ernst Batta: Obelisks. Egyptian obelisks and their history in Rome (= Insel-Taschenbuch. Volume 765). Insel, Frankfurt a. M. 1986, ISBN 3-458-32465-8 .
- Giovanni Cipriani: Gli obelischi egizi. Politica e cultura nella Roma barocca. Olschki, Florence 1993, ISBN 88-222-4060-X .
- Labib Habachi : The immortal obelisks of Egypt. Revised and expanded new edition by Carola Vogel. von Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2658-0 .
- Klaus Bartels : Rome's speaking stones. 2nd Edition. von Zabern, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-8053-2690-4 .
- Armin Wirsching: How the obelisks were erected at the turn of the ages and in the 4th century. In: Gymnasium . Volume 113, 2006, pp. 329-358.
- Armin Wirsching: Transporting and erecting obelisks in Egypt and Rome. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2007, ISBN 978-3-8334-8513-8 (3rd edition, Norderstedt 2013).
- Susan Sorek: The Emperors' Needles. Egyptian Obelisks and Rome. Bristol Phoenix Press, Exeter 2010, ISBN 978-1-904675-30-3 . (Review by Andrea Schütze, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review. December 8, 2010. (online, German) .)
Web links
- Rome's Obelisks - Map with all obelisks, also with information listed in the table
- The Roman Obelisks ( Memento from September 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Obelischi di Roma (Italian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.travel.it/en/structures/rome/itineraries/egyptian-obelisks
- ↑ Carola Vogel: A Search for Traces - Roman Obelisks at a Glance. In: Labib Habachi (ed.): The immortal obelisks of Egypt. Revised and expanded new edition, von Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2658-0 , pp. 103–113.