Vatican Museums

Cortile della Pigna

Named for the huge pineapple sculpture that we see, this patio was built by Donato Bramante in 1506 at the request of Pope Julius II who sought to communicate the palace of Innocent VIII with the Sistine Chapel.

The enormous bronze in the Patio de la Piña, about 4 meters high, was found during medieval works carried out in the remains of a chamber of the Baths of Agrippa, north of the Largo di Torre Argentina and by the old sector of the Campo de Mars. It seems to have belonged originally to the nearby but disappeared temple of the Sanctuary of Isis, also the place of origin of the Marble Foot in the street of the same name, an interesting fact as it would connect the symbol with traditions of Egyptian origin. It would be the largest pineapple cone figure that has ever been found in the world.

There are theories that would say that this is a great pagan symbol kept within the Vatican itself. In the esoteric language, the pineapple, in reference to the pineal gland, is the symbol of the Eye of the Mind, a quite multicultural concept. The "awakening of the third eye" is the process of self-knowledge, of the deepening of the notion of oneself. Among the initiates in occult knowledge, this symbol is a clear wink of recognition. This symbol is represented, in its various versions, in a large number of "pagan" ancestral cultures, among them the Egyptian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Hindu, among others.