Fontana della Pigna (1st century A.D.)

The Fontana della Pigna or simply Pigna, "the pinecone," is a former Roman fountain which now decorates a vast niche in the wall of the Vatican facing the Cortile della Pigna, located in Vatican City, in Rome, Italy.

Composed of a large bronze pinecone almost four meters high which once spouted water from the top, the Pigna originally stood near the Pantheon next to the Temple of Isis. It was moved to the courtyard of the old St. Peter's Basilica during the Middle Age and then moved again, in 1608, to its present location, ^[1]

The courtyard where it stands was originally part of the Cortile del Belvedere, designed by Donato Bramante to connect the Palace of Pope Innocent VIII with the the Sistine Chapel. When Bramante died, architect Pirro Ligorio finished th project and added the wall and niche to close the courtyard. The construction the Vatican Library divided the Cortile del Belvedere into two. The upper part of the courtyard, the Cortile della Pigna, takes its name from the fountain.

The bronze peacocks on either side of the fountain are copies of those decorated the tomb of the Emperor Hadrian, now the Castel Sant'Angelo. The original peacocks are in the Braccio Nuovo Museum.

There is another Fontana della Pigna in Rimini, Italy.

[edit] Sources and Citations

[edit] External links

• Official Internet site of the Vatican

[edit] Bibliography

• Coffin, D.R. (2003). Pirro Ligorio. The Renaissance Artist, Architect, and Antiquarian. Penn State Press. 
• Rendina, Claudio (2000). Enciclopedia di Roma. Rome: Netwon & Compton.