Column of the Immaculate Conception - Roma, Italy - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

From Wikipedia: "The Column of the Immaculate Conception (Italian: La Colonna della Immacolata) is a nineteenth-century monument in central Rome depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Marian monument was designed by the architect Luigi Poletti, the actual figure atop was sculpted by Giuseppe Obici and commissioned by Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies. In part, he wanted to put closure to the dispute between Naples and the Papal States that had developed in the last century, when Naples abolished the Chinea, a yearly tribute offered to the Pope as ultimate sovereign of Naples.

The column was dedicated on 8 December 1857. It celebrated the recently adopted (1854) dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The dogma had been proclaimed ex cathedra in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus of Pope Pius IX.

The structure is a square marble base with statues of biblical figures at the corners that uphold a column of Cipollino marble of 11.8 meters. Atop the column is a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary. The standard imagery of the immaculate conception is used: a virgin on a crescent, atop the world, stomping a serpent (a symbol of the original sin assigned to all humans, except the Virgin Mary, since Adam and Eve).

The Corinthian column itself was sculpted in ancient Rome, and was discovered in 1777 during the construction of the monastery of Santa Maria della Concezione located in this area, the site of the former Campus Martius. The original column once bore the goddess Minerva carrying a shield, now lost in history. At the base are four statues of Hebrew figures that gave portent of the virgin birth, each accompanied by a quote of a biblical verse in Latin, including David (by Adam Tadolini), Isaiah (by Salvatore Revelli), Ezekiel (by Carlo Chelli), and Moses (by Ignazio Jacometti).

The column was erected by the city fireman. Every December 8, the day of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a ceremony is held here, often with the Pope in attendance, where the head of the Italian fire department presents a bouquet with the motto "Flammas domamus, donamus Corda " (English: "We stop fires, giving our hearts") while a fire truck is used to place a bouquet around the right arm of the Virgin Mary statue and another bouquet decorated with SPQR label is placed on the bottom of the statue." (visit link)

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/20/2017 LeBourguignon visited it