The cannonball in the staircase at Palazzo Colonna

There is a cannonball lodged in the short flight of stairs that leads up to the Great Hall, and it is where it landed. The operator’s own words: “On the short flight of stairs leading to the Great Hall it is possible to see a cannon ball that landed right there in 1849 during the period of the Roman Republic. It was fired by the French Army from the Janiculum Hill.” The city’s tourism authority adds the name the palace leaves out: the French “under the orders of General Oudinot”.

Year1849

Fired byThe French Army

FromThe Janiculum Hill

UnderGeneral Oudinot

DuringThe Roman Republic

Where it isThe stairs to the Great Hall

Two words doing the work

Right there. That is the phrase, and it is the reason to quote the sentence whole rather than paraphrase it. Plenty of buildings display a cannonball. This one is telling you that the object has not been moved: it came through the air, it hit that step, and it has stayed on that step through everything that has happened to Rome since.

You meet it between the first room on the route and the second, which means you meet it about ninety seconds after you have handed over your ticket, before you have adjusted to being inside somebody’s house. I have never got a group past it without somebody asking whether they can touch it.

What was happening in 1849

The Roman Republic — the operator’s own framing, and the date is its year. A French army was firing into the city from the Janiculum, the ridge on the far side of the Tiber that looks down on it. One of the rounds came across the river and into this staircase.

The palace does not say more than that and neither will I. There is no account here of who was in the building, what else was hit, or what anybody did about it, because I have not found one published and this is not a page for filling gaps.

Where the two sources differ, and where they do not

They do not contradict each other. The operator names the year, the army and the hill. The city names the commander as well: General Oudinot. That is one source carrying a detail the other leaves out, which is a different thing from a disagreement, and this site says which source each half came from rather than pouring them into one sentence and hoping.

A long iron key and a worn brass handle lying on a pale stone ledge — Old iron and worn brass on stone. Objects that stay where they are put — a still life, not the staircase, and not photographed at the palace.

Seeing it

It is on the route, so any ticket that gets you up the stairs gets you to it: Saturday between 9:15 and 13:15, or a Friday guided tour by reservation. Nobody sells a ticket to the cannonball and nobody needs to. The hours and the doors are here, and the route is here.

Insider tip

Look at the step and not just the ball. The interesting part is the socket it made — a specific piece of damage, in a specific place, dated by the family who own the staircase.

Book the admission

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure on most tours — book now, decide later.

Frequently asked questions

Why is there a cannonball in the stairs at Palazzo Colonna?

It landed there in 1849, during the Roman Republic, fired by the French Army from the Janiculum Hill. The operator says it landed “right there” and it has been left where it fell.

Who fired the cannonball at Palazzo Colonna?

The French Army, from the Janiculum Hill, in 1849. The palace names the army and the hill; the city’s tourism authority adds that they were under the orders of General Oudinot.

Where exactly is the cannonball?

On the short flight of stairs leading up to the Great Hall, so you pass it between the first room on the route and the second.