Ponte Sisto

Rome · Italy · Bridge

On 7 January a black carriage tears across the bridge: the coachman has no head, and Donna Olimpia rides inside with the pope's gold.

Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj, whom Romans called la Pimpaccia, was sister-in-law to Pope Innocent X and the most powerful woman in seventeenth-century Rome. When the pope lay dead she is said to have had his strongboxes carried off before the body was cold; she herself died of plague in Viterbo in 1657, rich and detested. The legend makes her repeat that flight forever: on the night between 6 and 7 January a black carriage drawn by fire-breathing horses thunders across Ponte Sisto, a headless coachman on the box and Olimpia inside among the chests of gold. Midway across, the whole equipage plunges into the Tiber, where devils are said to be waiting. Neighbours speak of hoofbeats and sparks striking the stone.

FAQ

Where is Ponte Sisto located?

Ponte Sisto is in Rom, Italy.

More haunted places in Rom

• Salita dei Borgia Rome · Road
• Campo de' Fiori Rome · Urban site
• Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo Rome · Church
• Ponte Sant'Angelo (Bridge of Angels) Rome · Bridge
• Ponte Fabricio (Bridge of the Four Heads) Rome · Bridge
• Villa Celimontana Rome · Natural site
• Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth) Rome · Church
• Villa Strohl-Fern Rome · Manor

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Livioandronico2013 / CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons