Christmas Day: Sunday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Have a Blessed Christmas!
This is a Madonna and Child statue in a Filippino Parade in Rome.

Advent IV: Saturday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

San Filippo Neri - above a gate in Piazza Eurosia, Garbatella.

Advent IV: Friday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Ornamental iron work around Rome

Advent IV: Thursday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

"The Tortured" is a monumental statue by Francesco Coccia in front of the caves on Via Ardeatina, two km from our home, where 335 people were massacred on 24 March, 1944, by German occupation forces because 33 Nazi soldiers were killed by the resistance.

Advent IV: Wednesday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Bocca della Verità - Mouth of Truth

Probably a drain cover (1300 kg) from the nearby Temple of Hercules Invictus. Today it is on the porch of the Basilica Santa Maria in Cosmedin and is popular with tourists because it was featured in the film "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn and Richard Peck.

Advent IV: Tuesday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

The Great Christ: Dead and Risen (bronze, 6 meters high)
by Stefano Pierotti, born 1964

Created for World Youth Day 2000 in the fields of Rome's Tor Vergata and now in front of the Chiesa Santa Maria Margarita Alacoque.

Advent IV: Monday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Victims Memorial (Near Piramide, in front of the Ostia Lido Train Station)
A plaque dedicates this monument, not only to the victims of the Nazi Holocaust, but also to all "potenziali bersagli - potential targets" of fascism and racism.

 If you stand between the steel wall and the figures you can see colored triangles on the front of each figure. From left to right, the triangles are: Black - assigned to people who were deemed "asocial elements," including Roma (gypsies) and the mentally ill; Red - political prisoners; Double Yellow - a Star of David that marked Jews; Blue - foreign forced laborers; and Pink - homosexuals and other "sex offenders.”

Fourth Sunday of Advent - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Sculptures by Peter Rockwell in the garden of

St. Paul's Within the Walls Episcopal Church

Advent III: Saturday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

 Sculptures on the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II designed by Ennio di Rossi in 1886.

Advent III: Friday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Statue of St. John Paul II by Oliviero Rainaldi, 2012 (This 5-meter tall statue stands in Piazza Cinquecento, in front of Stazione Termini.)

Advent III: Thursday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Animals in my neighborhood of Garbatella.

Advent III: Wednesday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Sculpture in front of Rome's YMCA near EUR.

Advent III: Tuesday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

The Dragon and Eagle of the "Rotonda di Goethe" in the Villa Borghese.

Advent III: Monday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

 Statue of Ulysses by Ugo Attardi (1923-2006) in the courtyard of Palazzo Valentini, the office building for the Province of Rome,  on Via 4 Novembre.

Third Sunday of Advent - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Faces found in the Non-Catholic Cemetery

Advent II: Saturday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

The base of a lamp post on Ponte Mazzini with ship prows and ram's heads. The bridge was built at the beginning of the 20th century to honor Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the leaders of Italy's unification. 

Advent II: Friday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

This is a sculpture created by Michele Tripisciano in 1913 of Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli (1791- 1863), a Roman poet who wrote in Roman dialect. It is in Trastevere near the Tiber River's Ponte Garibaldi. 

Advent II: Thursday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Statues at the base of the Colonna della Immacolata near Piazza di Spagna:

David, Moses, Ezekial and Elijah

Advent I: Wednesday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Elephant and Obelisk in Piazza della Minerva, behind the Pantheon, was commissioned by Alexander VII, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and sculpted by Ercole Ferrata in 1667. Atop the marble elephant sits an obelisk from the 6th century BC that used to be part of the Temple of Isis that was in this area of Rome.

Advent II: Tuesday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

This is one of 16 sphinxes placed on top of the wall surrounding Piazza del Popolo by Giuseppe when he redesigned the square in 1815-1816. 

Advent II: Monday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

This 12 foot hight bronze pinecone was originally near the Pantheon, next to the Temple of Isis. In the middle ages it was in the courtyard of the old St. Peter's Basilica and in 1608 was moved again to the Belvedere Courtyard of the Vatican Gardens where it is today. (The peacocks below the pinecone are copies of ones that used to decorate the tomb of Hadrian, now know as the Castel Sant'Angelo.)

Second Sunday of Advent - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Pasquino, one of the six"talking statues" in Rome: Starting in the 16th century, these ancient statues provided a place for people to post anonymous political comments and criticisms, usually in the form of poetry. They continue to serve as a bulletin board even today.

Advent I: Saturday - Outdoor Sculpture in Rome

Top of the obelisk in Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano