Fountain of the Pine Cone

Private Tours of the Vatican Museums

Bronze pine cone

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The Cortile della Pigna is named after the four-metre-high bronze pine cone (pigna), which originally formed the centrepiece of a fountain.

The pine cone, which was cast by Publius Cincius Salvius (who left his name on the base) in the first or second century CE, was unearthed near the Pantheon.

For centuries the pine cone stood in the courtyard in front of the old Basilica di San Pietro; it was moved to its present position in 1608. 

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Cortile della Pigna