Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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06 3 28 10
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Via delle Quattro Fontane 13
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adult/reduced €7/3.50, with Palazzo Corsini €9/4.50
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8.30am-7pm Tue-Sun
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Barberini
MUSEO DELLE CERE
MUSEUM
( 06 679 64 82;
www.museodellecereroma.com
; Piazza dei Santissimi Apostoli 67; adult/reduced €9/7;
9am-9pm; Via IV Novembre)
Rome's waxwork museum is said to have the world's third-
largest collection, which comprises more than 250 figures, ranging from Barack Obama to
Snow White, plus plentiful popes, poets, politicians, musicians and murderers. You can
also visit the laboratory where the waxworks are created.
MIRACULOUS MADONNAS
Overlooking Vicolo delle Bollette, a tiny lane near the Trevi Fountain, there's a small, simple painting of the Vir-
gin Mary. This is the
Madonna della Pietà,
one of the most famous of Rome's
madonnelle
(small madonnas).
There are estimated to be around 730 of these roadside madonnas in Rome's historic centre, most placed on street
corners or outside historic
palazzi
(mansions). Many were added in the 16th and 17th centuries, but their origins
date to pagan times when votive wall shrines were set up at street corners to honour the Lares, household spirits
believed to protect passers-by. When Christianity emerged in the 4th century AD, these shrines were simply
rededicated to the religion's new icons.
The subject of much popular devotion, they are shrouded in myth. The most famous legend dates to 1796 when
news of a French invasion is said to have caused 36
madonnelle,
including the
Madonna della Pietà,
to move
their eyes and some even to cry. A papal commission set up to investigate subsequently declared 26 madonnas to
be officially miraculous.
As well as food for the soul, the madonnas also provided a valuable public service. Until street lamps were in-
troduced in the 19th century, the candles and lamps that lit up the images were the city's only source of street
lighting.
