Monte Testaccio

Monte Testaccio - Is an artificial hill composed of millions of broken amphorae dating from the time of the Roman Empire, some of which were labelled with tituli picti.
Monte Testaccio was the scene of pre-Lenten celebrations. When Stendhal visited in 1827, he described the place like this: “two carts filled with pigs were hauled to the top of the hill, then allowed to run back down the steep slope to be smashed to pieces along with their porcine passengers. The watching revellers would then dismember the pigs on the spot and carry the parts off to be roasted and eaten”.
The hill gained a brief military significance in 1849 when it was used as the site of an Italian gun battery, under the command of Giuseppe Garibaldi, in the successful defence of Rome against an attacking French army.
Monte Testaccio also had a religious significance; it was formerly used on Good Friday to represent the hill of Golgotha in Jerusalem, when the Pope would lead a procession to the summit and placed crosses to represent those of Jesus and the two thieves crucified alongside him. Monte Testaccio is still crowned with a cross in commemoration of the event.