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Rome is studded with cannon balls (2022)

119 points by thomassmith65 6 days ago | 13 comments

Edit: it seems one of the cannonballs comes from the siege of Rome during the unifaction of Italy.

Echoing another comment, before unification, Italy (1860s) had its "warring states period".

The North were independent small monarchies, including the Savoia, from which came the unification push with the help of Garibaldi.

In center Italy the Church ruled with an iron fist. In fact, when Rome was besieged and the Church lost, all of Italy was excommunicated by the Pope. (They then bactracked on the policy once they saw people just kept going about with their lives).

In the South was a repressed agricultural state that was so terrible to live under people invented something even worse: the mafia. (This is also why so many Italian Americans come from the South - they were escaping in search of a better life).

A song (in Italian) somewhat about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poaPh00AmDQ

lapetitejort 2 days ago

Fort Pulaski in Savannah, Georgia also has cannonballs embedded in the brick walls: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pulaski_National_Monument

kjs3 2 days ago

Yup; it's a neat daytrip if you're in the area. But then Capt. Gillmore showed up with rifled cannons and showed why we don't use cannonballs any more. :-)

csteubs 2 days ago

VMI has a number of cannonballs embedded in the turrets on the backside of Old Barracks as well. They're more placeholders now than anything, but were left in situ after General Hunter shelled and burned the then-arsenal during the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. One of my favorite points of intrigue as a cadet tour guide long ago.

jweir 2 days ago

Lewes Delaware has the Cannonball house which was struck in the 1812 bombardment. Delightful town and beach, worth a visit.

brabel 2 days ago

Stockholm also has famous canon balls lodged on buildings in the old town: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/stortorget-cannonball

They are supposed to be from the Blood Bath that happened there in the 16th century when Swedes and Danes still enjoyed killing each other frequently, but no wall survives this long with a metal ball in it, hence that’s apparently a fake thing by some smart 18th century building owners.

FrontierProject 2 days ago

Yeah nobody who's ever seen a ballistic object hit anything is going to mistake that first image for a cannonball that was actually fired at the wall.

luma 2 days ago

> The cannonball crashed into the church and went through a first wall. It then ended on the altar of the Chapel of the Virgin. [...] The cannon ball was walled into the left wall of the Chapel and a commemorative epigraph was added to it.

It wasn't showing the wall where it had crashed through, it's showing where the ball has been mounted into the wall for display.

kevin_thibedeau 2 days ago

The Aurelian wall looks like a ball was grouted in as well.

edsfdfdfs 24 hours ago

my uncle is a highlander. he was there and he says its a real one

mr_00ff00 2 days ago

Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but there was a time when Italy was the world’s Middle East (a collection of divided states where the great powers had their proxy wars)

Not a surprise to see Rome have so many based on that.

ggm 23 hours ago

Edinburgh has one, it's at the end of the esplanade in front of the castle (where the Edinburgh tattoo is held) embedded in a building wall and is frequently pointed out to visitors by local guides.

It may have been placed there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_House_(Edinburgh)

sdgluck 2 days ago

Or Rome is the set of a real-life Truman Show.