Pigna (rione of Rome)

Pigna is the name of rione IX of Rome. The name means "pine cone" in Italian, and the symbol for the rione is the colossal bronze pine cone, the Pigna, which decorated a fountain in Ancient Rome next to a vast Temple of Isis. There water flowed copiously from the top of the pinecone. The Pigna was moved first to the old basilica of St. Peter's, where Dante saw it. In the 15th century it was moved to its current location, the upper end of Bramante's Cortile del Belvedere, which is now usually called in its honour the "Cortile della Pigna", linking the Vatican and the Palazzo del Belvedere. There it stands today under Pirro Ligorio's vast niche at the far end, flanked by a pair of Roman bronze peacocks brought from Hadrian's mausoleum, the Castel Sant'Angelo.

The rione is centrally located in the Campus Martius area of ancient Rome. It is roughly square shaped, extending from the Pantheon on its northwest corner to the Piazza Venezia on the southeast. This relatively small area contains numerous churches and palazzi.

External links

* [http://mp_pollett.tripod.com/rione09.htm History, images and mpas of the rione] it icon [http://www.portalidiroma.net/rionepigna/ Map of the Rione]