Obelisco Campense

In front of Palazzo Montecitorio, which is the seat of the Parliament, we see the red granite obelisk originally erected in the 6th century BC at Heliopolis by Pharaoh Psammetichus II, and transported to Rome by Augustus in 10 BC.

Augustus used this obelisk as a gnomon, that is the style of a gigantic sundial constructed in the Campus Martius. It was supposed to project its shadow onto a marble-paved square, indicating the hours, seasons, sings of the zodiac and years, which were marked out in bronze. The sundial was not only a relation to the Ara Pacis, which originally stood near the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, and was regulated so as to direct its shadow towards the altar on the Emperor's birthday.

The obelisk was erected where it is today in 1794 as per the wishes of Pope Pius VI, who had it restored, filling in the missing parts with granite from the Column of Antoninus Pius, which was thus destroyed.