Vatican obelisk

The Vatican Obelisk is an Egyptian obelisk, one of the thirteen ancient obelisks of Rome, located in St. Peter's Square, in Vatican City. It is the only ancient obelisk in Rome that has never fallen.

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 hieroglyphs and comes, according to Pliny, from the city of Heliopolis; it was originally placed in the Forum Iulii of Alexandria in Egypt and was brought to Rome by Caligula in 40 AD, and placed at the center of the Circus of Nero. 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
Having stood in the same location in Rome since c.40 AD, it was moved almost 800 feet at the behest of Pope Sixtus V in a single day on September 10, 1586. The work was carried out under the direction of the architect Domenico Fontana who required thirteen months of preparatory work, 900 men, 75 horses and 40 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: 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. 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.

A detailed account of the relocation was published in Della transportatione dell'obelisco Vaticano e delle fabriche di Sisto V (Rome, 1590). The astronomer Ignazio Danti is known to have assisted Fontana in this work.

On the occasion of its relocation, the globe placed on the summit was transferred to the Capitoline Museums, in the first hall of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, in a corner near the large window. According to legend, the ashes of St. Peter or Julius Caesar had been contained in the globe; the Italian aquila for the imperial Roman eagle is similar to the Italian aguglia (needle), initially used only for obelisks.

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. However, on April 12, 1740, it was placed and taken from a reliquary of the basilica of St. Peter, already that of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.

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.