Many see them, day after day, without even giving them a glance. But these two lions, made of black granite with reddish veins, placed right at the beginning of Michelangelo's Cordonata which leads to the Campidoglio, have an origin and a history worthy of note. As always in Rome it is right to give the right emphasis even to something that seems unimportant, especially if it is very close to monuments such as the Altare della Patria. But as a local tour guide I warn you that it is always better to keep your eyes wide open, in order to come into contact with something very intriguing. Let's see together, therefore, the history of these two granite sculptures.

First of all, as can be well understood, the two lions are clearly Egyptian in style. They come exactly from the land of the Pharaohs and were moved to Rome, as ornamenta, to decorate the Iseo Campense (the great temple dedicated to Isis which had its maximum splendor in the 1st-2nd century AD). Like many other fantastic decorations of this ancient temple, such as the small obelisk in Piazza delle Rotonda, in front of the Pantheon, these two lions have also experienced vicissitudes, transfers, vandalism and more. First of all, it is right to indicate how, initially, the two lions were placed at the entrance to the Church of Santo Stefano del Cacco, a few steps from Santa Maria sopra Minerva, precisely in the area where, in ancient times, the temple of Isis stood. A foreign divinity imported into the ancient city, as was almost the practice in the multicultural and multi-religious Rome of the time. It was with pope Pius IV Medici, in 1562, that the two beautiful lions were moved to their current location. The curiosity is that, initially, the two black granite felines were not fountains at all, but simple statues. Only in 1587 were they adapted to fountains, inserting the spouts that we still see today, from which the water flows, and also with the addition of travertine bases and small chalices on which the water falls, all designed by Giacomo Della Porta. Let's remember him as an architect who designed many of the sixteenth-century fountains which still embellish the Eternal City today. Why this change? Simply to indicate to the Romans how there, on the Capitoline Hill, thanks to the construction of the Felice Aqueduct (desired by Pope Sixtus V to whom we also owe the first exhibition fountain in Rome, as you can read here), of the new and good water was accessible.

To conclude, I also add how, over the centuries, the two lions were initially moved inside the Capitoline Museums, to avoid vandalism, and were subsequently reinserted into their current context. We see, therefore, how even something apparently simple, but at the same time beautiful, can reserve surprises. A long and complex history, which starts from the mania of the ancient Romans for everything that came from ancient Egypt, up to the equally maniacal desire of some pontiffs, especially of the sixteenth century, to adorn Rome with fountains in memory of their policy of supplying water, with the reconstruction of ancient aqueducts. These two granite lions tell us all this.