Obelisco Mattejano o Capitolino

A twin of the one in Piazza della Rotonda, it is the only one in Rome not to be located in a public square. It is in fact placed in the garden of Villa Celimontana.Originally 7 metres high, only the upper part of about 3 metres remains, on which the titles of Ramses II are engraved. This fragment was found near the ruins of the temple of Isis, but the lower part of the obelisk was never found. The top of the obelisk is decorated with a bronze ball that, according to some, must have contained Octavian's ashes.It was originally placed at the side of the steps leading to the convent of S. Maria in Aracoeli, at the top of the Capitol, presumably in the 14th century, and remained there for about a century. Four lions, facing the corners of the base, supported the shaft of the obelisk. It fell and was transported elsewhere, and its memory was lost. It was only at the end of the 16th century that Ciriaco Mattei, a Roman nobleman and passionate collector of antiquities, rediscovered it, had it donated by the City and had it placed in his Villa Mattei (now Celimontana).His heirs, however, left the villa and the obelisk in a state of great neglect, and it was only the villa's next owner, Manuel de Godoy, a former Spanish Prime Minister during the Napoleonic period, who took care of its conservation.