You are along the route: THE ZOO OF WONDERS. STONE ANIMALS
Via di Sant’Eustachio, 19
Always visible.
Legend tells that the Basilica of St. Eustace was built on the house of Placid, a General in the Emperor Trajan’s army, who when out hunting one day near Tivoli, came across a deer with the face of the Redeemer between its antlers. The animal stopped, lit up by a blinding light. It was Christ, who said the following words to him “Placid, why do you persecute me? I am Jesus, who you honour without knowing”. After this vision, the General decided to be baptized, taking the name of Eustachio, or Eustace, and also had his wife and two children baptized. This is why, in the early eighteenth century, a deer’s head was placed there with a cross.
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