Description
The Roman Columns are the symbol of Brindisi: at the top of the rise overlooking the harbor stands a marble column nearly 19 meters tall, left alone after its twin collapsed. As early as the 14th century the two columns were the city's coat of arms.
The surviving column is of Proconnesian marble, 18.74 meters tall: a base over 4 meters high, eight stacked drums, the capital and, at the top, a final block decorated with three bands of friezes. The capital is the finest piece: four deities and eight tritons among acanthus leaves, with busts of pagan gods acting as telamons.
The one at the top is a copy. The original capital, taken down during the restoration between 1996 and 2002, is on display in a room of Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna, a short walk away, where you can see it up close.
On the pedestal you can read an inscription recalling the rebuilding of the city by the protospatharios Lupus, probably in the 9th century, after its destruction by the Saracens.
Who erected them, and when, remains a mystery. Local historians, with plenty of imagination, credited them to Hercules, father of the city's mythical founder, to Sulla or to Trajan. The different marbles and reused pieces point instead to a late arrangement, perhaps Byzantine.
For centuries it was said that they marked the end of the Appian Way, but that's an idea of 18th-century scholars. Just as unlikely is that they were a lighthouse. They face the harbor mouth, and were raised to celebrate something or someone, perhaps with two bronze statues on top.
The two columns in Venice's Piazza San Marco, in front of the city's main waterfront, are thought to be a medieval copy of the ones in Brindisi.
On November 20, 1528, after a strong earthquake, one of the two columns fell, and the pieces lay on the ground for more than a century. Then the plague of 1657 spared the Terra d'Otranto, and Lecce wanted to thank its patron saint, Saint Orontius, with a monument.
The mayor of Brindisi offered the remains of the fallen column, but his successor, speaking for the townspeople, refused to hand them over. It took an order from the Viceroy of Naples, in 1659. In 1666 Giuseppe Zimbalo raised the Column of Saint Orontius in Lecce, with the drums and capital from Brindisi reworked.
Don't miss
• The capital with deities and tritons.
• The original capital at Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna.
• The inscription on the pedestal.
Did you know?
• During World War II the column was taken apart piece by piece to save it from the bombing.
The surviving column is of Proconnesian marble, 18.74 meters tall: a base over 4 meters high, eight stacked drums, the capital and, at the top, a final block decorated with three bands of friezes. The capital is the finest piece: four deities and eight tritons among acanthus leaves, with busts of pagan gods acting as telamons.
The one at the top is a copy. The original capital, taken down during the restoration between 1996 and 2002, is on display in a room of Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna, a short walk away, where you can see it up close.
On the pedestal you can read an inscription recalling the rebuilding of the city by the protospatharios Lupus, probably in the 9th century, after its destruction by the Saracens.
Who erected them, and when, remains a mystery. Local historians, with plenty of imagination, credited them to Hercules, father of the city's mythical founder, to Sulla or to Trajan. The different marbles and reused pieces point instead to a late arrangement, perhaps Byzantine.
For centuries it was said that they marked the end of the Appian Way, but that's an idea of 18th-century scholars. Just as unlikely is that they were a lighthouse. They face the harbor mouth, and were raised to celebrate something or someone, perhaps with two bronze statues on top.
The two columns in Venice's Piazza San Marco, in front of the city's main waterfront, are thought to be a medieval copy of the ones in Brindisi.
On November 20, 1528, after a strong earthquake, one of the two columns fell, and the pieces lay on the ground for more than a century. Then the plague of 1657 spared the Terra d'Otranto, and Lecce wanted to thank its patron saint, Saint Orontius, with a monument.
The mayor of Brindisi offered the remains of the fallen column, but his successor, speaking for the townspeople, refused to hand them over. It took an order from the Viceroy of Naples, in 1659. In 1666 Giuseppe Zimbalo raised the Column of Saint Orontius in Lecce, with the drums and capital from Brindisi reworked.
Don't miss
• The capital with deities and tritons.
• The original capital at Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna.
• The inscription on the pedestal.
Did you know?
• During World War II the column was taken apart piece by piece to save it from the bombing.