Ghost tour in Rome #4 Muro Torto

Muro Torto 

The ghost tour continues with a particular place, the Muro Torto.

Today you only see a part of an ancient villa dating back to the end of the Republican age.

The name Torto means that it is particularly protruding, not right then crooked or as the Romans say, Torto!

Naturally, the legends were born copious.

The most famous legend tells that a lightning struck him the day when Peter was crucified.

Another legend: the Wall is built on a desecrated cemetery. The condemned to death, atheists and the prostitutes were buried in this place, their ghosts roam the avenue with the severed head.

Muro Torto - Photo by Roma Sparita

"Witnesses" swear they saw the spirit of Nero since his body is buried not far away, in Santa Maria del Popolo's church.

Muro torto - View

In 1485 some peasants found, on the Via Appia Antica, a tomb dating back to the time of Emperor Augustus. The men opened the tomb and were surprised, inside a body of a woman, young and beautiful, lay intact. Miracle or magic?

The corpse was taken to the people in Campidoglio.

Every day the Romans, attracted by the beauty of the young, stood in line to see her. The Pope, Innocent VIII, scandalized by the sacrilegious procession,buried her  body during the night, she was buried in a hurry at the Muro Torto.

In 1704 a young 24 years old prostitute was killed in her home, her cat survived two weeks, drank her mistress's blood. Her  phantom still runs between the Muro Torto and Piazza del Popolo.

After the legends now we tell about an historical fact

In 1825 the Carbonari Targhini and Montanari, just beheaded in Piazza del Popolo were buried in this cemetery ... .since this moment the mystery begins, their ghosts roam with their head cut off in their hands.

A curiosity: people say that if you approach a ghost of the Muro Torto (ok, you have to be brave) and you can support their gaze, you can ask them the lucky numbers of the lotto game 

The gratings

At the top of the Pincio wall ends. You can see some metal gratings, they prevent suicide. The rumors tell that the restless spirits attract people to make this gesture.

Ghost tour in Rome #3 Constanza Conti De Cupis (17th century)

We remain in Piazza Navona, in via dell'Anima,  the house on the right side of the Sant'Agnese in Agone's church  is infested by the Constanza's ghost .

Constance Conti De Cupis moved to this palace after her marriage with the nephew of Cardinal Giandomenico De Cupis's nephew.

Constanza Conti De Cupis 

She was a woman of extraordinary beauty and in particular for the perfection of her hands, an artist made a cast that she exhibited in his shop.

Everyone admired those stupendous hands; but one day a foreigner or (according to another version) a friar, after having seen them, affirmed that the woman, to whom they belonged, would soon lose them.

The people informed Constanza about this obscure presage and it shocked her deeply, she immediately demanded that the cast be destroyed, and since that day she would not leave the house any more, she was scared she could be involved in some accident.

She did not leave the house and spent her time sewing. One day a needle stung her finger and the small wound generated an infection, which spread to the arm.

The doctors could not do anything to save her hand, it was now swollen and covered with sores. They amputated it..

This operation, however, could not save her, and after the unfortunate Constanza died of septicemia.

Representation of Costanza's hand

Legend has it that from that moment, when the moon lights up the windows of the building, the light reflected on the glass reveals a pale five-fingered shape, visible from the square below.