Obelisco del Quirinale, Rome

The Obelisco del Quirinale rises from the Fountain of the Dioscuri in Piazza del Quirinale. This tall granite shaft is among Rome’s ancient obelisks, and it gives the square a deliberately ceremonial focus. Its stone was quarried at Aswan in Egypt, then brought to Rome during the first century of the common era, probably under Domitian.

It originally stood with its matching partner at the approach to Augustus’s mausoleum. Notice the unmarked surface: unlike the familiar Egyptian monuments covered with signs, this obelisk carries no hieroglyphs. It also lacks the small pyramid-shaped finish normally placed at an obelisk’s crown.

After falling and vanishing beneath the ground in the medieval period, it emerged by chance during building work in seventeen eighty-one, broken into separate sections. Pope Pius the Sixth ordered its recovery and restoration. Giovanni Antinori placed it here in seventeen eighty-six beside the immense horse-taming figures of Castor and Pollux.

A bronze cross was added at its crown, enclosing relics associated with Christ, apostles, and popes. Beyond the fountain stands the Quirinal Palace, the official residence of Italy’s president.