Description
The Obelisco dell'Immacolata is the 22-meter Baroque marble spire in the middle of Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, in Naples, in front of the church of the same name: the youngest of the city's three great spires.
It looks like the festival machines of Baroque celebrations, translated into marble. On the balustrade stand four Jesuit saints by Matteo Bottiglieri; higher up are the bas-reliefs with scenes from the life of the Virgin, by Bottiglieri and Francesco Pagano. At the top rises the copper statue of the Immaculate Virgin, the work of Pagano.
It was begun in 1747 to a design by Giuseppe Genoino, commissioned by the Jesuit Father Francesco Pepe and paid for by a public collection. Every December 8, firefighters climb all the way to the top to lay a wreath of flowers on the statue.
A legend says that, seen from behind, the Madonna's veil traces a skeletal face, and that the scepter in her hand is really a scythe: Death hidden on the spire.
It looks like the festival machines of Baroque celebrations, translated into marble. On the balustrade stand four Jesuit saints by Matteo Bottiglieri; higher up are the bas-reliefs with scenes from the life of the Virgin, by Bottiglieri and Francesco Pagano. At the top rises the copper statue of the Immaculate Virgin, the work of Pagano.
It was begun in 1747 to a design by Giuseppe Genoino, commissioned by the Jesuit Father Francesco Pepe and paid for by a public collection. Every December 8, firefighters climb all the way to the top to lay a wreath of flowers on the statue.
A legend says that, seen from behind, the Madonna's veil traces a skeletal face, and that the scepter in her hand is really a scythe: Death hidden on the spire.