St Peter's Square Piazza San Pietro

Two discs set into the paving mark the focal points of the ellipse (Centri del Colonnato).

In the center of the oval, towards which the square slopes gently down, is an Egyptian obelisk 25.5m/87ft high. This was brought from Heliopolis to Rome by Caligula in A.D. 39 and set up in his circus (later known as the Circus of Nero). Throughout the Middle Ages this obelisk remained in its original position - the only one in Rome to do so - until Pope Sixtus V directed in 1586 that it should be moved to St Peter's Square. Domenico Fontana was charged with the very difficult task of transporting this huge mass of stone weighing 350 tons to its new site. The operation took four months (from April 30th until September 10th) and involved the employment of 900 workmen, 140 horses and 44 winches. It is said that at one point the ropes were on the point of breaking under the strain when one of the workmen, disregarding the Pope's strict order that there should be absolute silence, shouted "Pour water on them" and saved the situation. The story goes that the Pope then granted him and his family the privilege of supplying the palm branches used in the Palm Sunday services, a practice which his descendants have maintained until the present day. On May 13th 1981 Pope John Paul II was seriously wounded in an attempt on his life in St Peter's Square.