1856 Luigi Poletti (1792/1869) for Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78) who had proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception on the 31st of December 1854
The dogma is not the fact that the Virgin Mary conceived Jesus as a virgin, as it is commonly and mistakenly believed, but the fact that the Virgin Mary was the only human being to be born without the original sin, besides Jesus of course. She was conceived immaculate
The site of the monument was chosen because it was in front of the Spanish Embassy as to acknowledge Spain as the country which contributed the most to the definition and the proclamation of the dogma
The COLUMN is ancient, it is 29.23 m (96 feet) high including the statue and it is made out of "Veined Cipollino" marble, Marmor Carystium from Carystos in the region of Eubea in Greece, called cipollino - onionlike - because of the smell similar to smell of onions that it releases when it is cut
It was found in 1777 during the construction of the convent and church of St. Mary of the Conception in Campo Marzio
Every 8th of December since 1938 the Pope blesses a crown of flowers in the square and the firemen hang it on the arm of the statue of the Virgin Mary using a long ladder
"Statue of the Virgin Mary" by Giuseppe Obici (1807/78) who also sculpted the group of the "Four Evangelists" supporting the bronze statue
BASE OF THE COLUMN
"Four statues of Prophets": "Moses" by Ignazio Jacometti (1819/83). The small mouth of Moses was criticized by a sign anonymously hanged on the "talking statue" Pasquino: it described the mouth as too small to be able to talk and only able to whistle disapprovingly the sculptor, just like Italians would whistle in opera theaters to disapprove singers
The other three prophets are "David" by Adamo Tadolini (1788/1868), "Isaia" by Salvatore Revelli (1816/59) and "Ezechiele" by Carlo Chelli
BAS RELIEFS
"Definition of the Dogma" by Pietro Galli (1804/77) pupil of Bertel Thorvaldsen
"Dream of St. Joseph" by Nicola Cantalamessa Papotti (1833/1910)
"Crowning of Mary" by Giovanni Maria Benzoni (1799/1873)
"Annunciation" by Giuseppe Gianfredi
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