St Peter’s Square Obelisk | Rome and Vatican City Official, Customized Private Guided Tours
St. Peter’s Square Obelisk | The Obelisk in St. Peter’s Square was initially erected at Heliopolis by the Egyptian King Nuncores; Emperor Caligula (37-41 A.D.) had it brought to Rome and raised in his circus, which later on was named after Nero; here it was dedicated to Augustus and Tiberius as is stated on its pedestal—guide of Rome.
This is the only one that has never been overthrown among all the obelisks that decorated the ancient mistress of the world. It has come down to us intact. No other monument in the world is the surviving witness of so many tragic and essential historical and religious events.
For 15 centuries, it stood in the spine of Caligula’s Circus (near the sacristy), where it was the mute spectator of the orgies and games of the pagans, of the chariot races of Caligula and Nero, of the heroic martyrdom of the early Christians (dressed up in skins and devoured by wild dogs), of the living torches as narrated by Tacitus*, of the crucifixion and burial of St. Peter. Later, it witnessed all the vicissitudes of constructing the most critical monument humanity ever erected to religion.
* We give here the well-known passage of Tacitus
Nero punished, with exquisite torture, a race of men detested for their evil practices by vulgar appellation commonly called Christians. The name was derived from Christ, who suffered under Pontius Pilatus, the procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius. St. Peter’s Square Obelisk.
By that event, the sect (St. Peter’s Square Obelisk) of which he was the founder, received a blow which, for a time soon after, spread with recruited vigor, not only in Judea. This soil gave it birth but even in the city of Rome, the standard sink into which everything infamous and abominable flows like a torrent from all quarters of the world. Nero proceeded with his usual cunning; he found a sect of profligate and abandoned wretches induced to confess themselves guilty.
On the evidence of such men, several Christians were convicted not upon clear evidence of having set the city on fire but rather on account of their sullen hatred of the whole Roman race. They were put to death with exquisite cruelty, and to their sufferings, Nero (St. Peter’s Square Obelisk) added mockery and derision; some were covered with the skins of wild beasts and left to be devoured by dogs; others were nailed to the cross; numbers were burnt alive; and many covered with the combustible matter were lighted up when the day declined, to serve as torches during the night. For the convenience of seeing this tragic spectacle, the Emperor lent his gardens. He added the sports of the circus and assisted in person, sometimes driving a curricle and occasionally mixing with the rabble in his coachman’s dress. At length, the cruelty of these proceedings filled every breast with compassion. Humanity relented in favor of the Christians. The manners of that people were, no doubt, of a pernicious tendency, and their crimes called for the hand of Justice, good but to only glut the rage and cruelty of one man.
Pope Sixtus V, in 1586, after having exorcised it as an infernal idol (St. Peter’s Square Obelisk), had it removed here by the architect Fontana, erected in the center of the square, and dedicated to the Cross, a relic of which is preserved on the top. Here, it continued to be a spectator of the torrent of pilgrims who, for 2000 years, have come from all parts of the world to venerate the tomb of the humble fisherman of Galilee.
The astronomer Gigli traced the meridian line in the center of the square in 1817.
Around the different directions of the winds are traced, as well as the twelve zodiac signs. The obelisk serves as a gnomon to the meridian, and its shade’s extremity indicates the sun’s entrance into the signs mentioned above.
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