Right behind the
Pantheon, missed by
the most of distracted tourists, a small tresure is hold in
Rome in a
small square called
Piazza della Minerva. Cosidered the Bernini's
most original invention, a small elephant (“Elefantino”) serves
as the support of an Egyptian obelisk right in front of the only
Gotic church in Rome called
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, a church that,
with its electric blue vaulting, keeps other treasures like the
Michelangelo's
Cristo Risorto (Christ Bearing the Cross).
At the base of the elephant statue,
which is definitely too small in relation to the size of the obelisk
which is supporting, a latin inscription says: “
Robustae mentis
esse solidam sapientiam sustinere”, saying to everybody that the
elephant is the symbol of the “strong mind”, which is the only
condition to bear a “great wisdom”.
Enjoy this secret corner of Rome.
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