Colonna dell'Immacolata

The cipollino shaft was found in 1777 in the convent of the Benedictines of Santa Maria in Campo Marzio; it was unfinished, and had probably never been used. It lay by Palazzo Montecitorio for about eighty years until 1854, when Pius IX decided to raise a monument after promulgating the dogma. Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies funded it as a gesture of reconciliation after the lapse of the Chinea tribute, and the architect was Luigi Poletti. The column is about 12 m high and nearly 1.5 m in diameter, with four reliefs on the base and statues of Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel and David at the corners; the bronze Virgin, 4 m high, is by Giuseppe Obici. Roma Capitale records that 220 firemen raised it, which is why the Vigili del Fuoco lay a wreath here every 8 December.