Pinecone (sculpture)
The Fontana della Pigna, or simply Pigna, is the bronze pine cone that gives this spot its name and its aura. Standing at nearly four meters high, the pine cone once capped a water-spouting fountain and was originally placed near the Pantheon beside the Temple of Isis. It was moved to the courtyard of Old St. Peter’s in the Middle Ages, and in 1608 it found its present niche facing the Cortile della Pigna. This grand feature sits in a wall niche within a vast courtyard that was shaped by Bramante’s Cortile del Belvedere plan, later closed with a wall by Pirro Ligorio as the Vatican’s library transformed the space. The Cortile della Pigna—the name of the upper courtyard—derives from this very fountain. …
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