What is left are the Bernini works that are neither in St Peter’s nor in a church nor in a museum: an elephant in the middle of a square, ten angels on a bridge, three palaces that today house a parliament and some offices, and a sculpture that was lost for two and a half centuries.
They are the easiest to see, because nearly all of them are out in the street, and the easiest to walk past without noticing.
The Minerva elephant (1667)
In Piazza della Minerva, a hundred metres from the Pantheon, a small marble elephant carries an Egyptian obelisk on its back. Romans call it the pulcino della Minerva, a corruption of porcino, piglet.
The obelisk had been found in the garden of the Dominicans of the church next door, and the problem was how to display it. Bernini’s solution was to rest it on an animal instead of a plinth, with the stated idea that it takes a robust mind to carry solid wisdom.
One point almost every guide skips: the monument is designed by Bernini but not carved by him. The execution, in 1667, is by his pupil Ercole Ferrata, and the monument was unveiled on 11 July 1667.
There is a story that Bernini deliberately turned the elephant so that its backside faced the Dominican convent, in spite at the friars who had forced changes on his design. It is told everywhere and it is undocumented: take it the way you take Roman legends, gladly but without passing it off as history.
The elephant is also one of the ten works in the portrait of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
The angels of Ponte Sant’Angelo, and the two that are not there
On the bridge leading to Castel Sant’Angelo stand ten angels, five to a side, each with an instrument of the Passion: the crown of thorns, the nails, the column, the scroll with the inscription from the cross.
Bernini designed all ten and handed their execution to his pupils, with two exceptions: the angel with the superscription and the angel with the crown of thorns he carved himself.
And here is the thing to know before you go, because it changes where to look: those two are not on the bridge. They were considered too fine to be left to the weather, they were replaced by copies, and the originals are today in the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, near the Spanish Steps.
So you cross the bridge for the ensemble, which remains one of the most theatrical urban entrances in Europe, but the two autograph Berninis are seen indoors, for free, in a church almost no tourist opens.
That church, incidentally, is also a Borromini stop: the bell tower and the drum of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte are his, and I have written about them in the article on Borromini in Rome’s churches.
Palazzo Barberini
The palace the Barberini built for themselves near the Quattro Fontane is the building site where the three names of the Roman Baroque cross: Carlo Maderno begins it, Bernini continues it, and Borromini, then a young collaborator, works on it too.
Today it is the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, so it is the only item on this list with a ticket, and it has a guide of its own: Palazzo Barberini and its works.
Palazzo Montecitorio, the design somebody else finished
The palace where the Chamber of Deputies meets today began as a private residence for the Ludovisi: in 1650 Innocent X entrusted its design to Bernini.
After Innocent X died in 1655, and because of financial difficulties, the site stopped with the building unfinished. It stayed that way for decades. It was taken up again in 1694 under Innocent XII and completed by Carlo Fontana, who modified Bernini’s design.
What you see from Piazza Montecitorio is therefore a building by two hands, and the Bernini part is the central block with its slightly convex facade, bent as though following a curve. It serves no functional purpose: it serves to make the building look as if it were moving.
You cannot walk in freely, but the Chamber runs public openings on dates announced on its own website.
Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi, and the palace that doubled
In Piazza dei Santi Apostoli is the palace Bernini remodelled for the Chigi, the family of Alexander VII, the pope of the Cathedra and the colonnade.
The building already existed: it had belonged to the Colonna, then the Ludovisi, who between 1622 and 1623 had it worked on by Carlo Maderno. It passed to the Chigi in 1661, and they called in Bernini, who rebuilt the facade between 1664 and 1666.
The idea was to mark every bay of windows with pilasters, keeping the side blocks slightly set back and without an order, so that the central block would come forward. It is the model of the Roman Baroque palace, and it was copied all over Europe.
There is a detail, though, that explains why the facade today does not convince as it should: in 1745 Nicola Salvi, helped by Luigi Vanvitelli, extended it to twice its length. The proportions Bernini had calculated between centre and wings no longer exist. What you are looking at is his design stretched to double, and once you know it you can see it.
The Bust of the Saviour (1679), the last sculpture
The last thing Bernini carved he made in 1679, at eighty, the year before he died: a bust of Christ the Saviour.
The story of where it ended up is the most novelistic in the whole cluster, and for once it is documented.
Bernini left it in his will to his friend and protector Christina of Sweden, the queen who had abdicated, converted and settled in Rome. Christina died in 1689 and gave it to Pope Innocent XI, who was an Odescalchi. The bust thus entered the family collection, kept in their Roman palace in Piazza dei Santi Apostoli: that is, exactly the palace of the previous section.
Then, at the end of the eighteenth century, it disappears from the inventories. For two centuries art historians know it only from documents.
In August 2001 it is identified in the convent of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura, on the Appian Way, where it was catalogued as a work by the Sicilian sculptor Pietro Papaleo. Re-examination recognises it as Bernini’s original.
Today it is displayed in a case inside the basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura, free to enter, and almost nobody knows it is there. It is a Christ who neither blesses nor judges: he looks ahead, his mouth slightly open, with the face of someone about to say something. The last thing Bernini carved is a man about to speak.
How to put them together
The first three are in the historic centre and can be walked in an afternoon: the elephant behind the Pantheon, Montecitorio five minutes away, Chigi-Odescalchi at Santi Apostoli, and Ponte Sant’Angelo towards the Tiber, with the detour to Sant’Andrea delle Fratte for the two real angels.
The Bust of the Saviour is the only stop outside the centre: San Sebastiano fuori le Mura is on the Appian Way, and it only makes sense if you give the Appia half a day of its own.
The other Roman works are in the other two itineraries: Bernini’s works in St Peter’s, Bernini’s works in Rome’s churches and, for the fountains, Bernini’s fountains in Rome.
Practical information
What you see for free and without booking: the Minerva elephant and Ponte Sant’Angelo are outdoors, at any hour. The two autograph angels in Sant’Andrea delle Fratte and the Bust of the Saviour in San Sebastiano fuori le Mura are in churches with free entry, on parish hours: closed over the midday break, roughly between noon and 3.30pm.
What you cannot visit freely: Palazzo Montecitorio opens to the public only on dates announced by the Chamber of Deputies, and Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi is a private building with offices, so you look at it from the square.
The only paying item is Palazzo Barberini, which is a state museum. If you also want to see the two Caravaggios and the Fornarina inside, the ticket for Palazzo Barberini can be bought online.
A note on the Appia: San Sebastiano fuori le Mura is on the Via Appia Antica and is not comfortably reachable on foot from the centre. You get there by bus or by bike, and it is the same outing on which you see the catacombs.
Details checked on 29 August 2026.
Photo credits. Minerva elephant and Bust of the Saviour: Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons. The angels of Ponte Sant’Angelo are by Vassil, in CC0.
