To contest the bad smell of the trashcans in Via Toscanella, often used as an open-air toilet, in 1984 the artist Mario Mariotti created the Madonna del Puzzo (Virgin Mary of stench).
Placed in a niche of the Torre dei Marsili tower, the terracotta busto shows the Virgin, with her eyes looking up in the air, as she holds her nose, with a mouse running along her arm.
When the bins were temporarily removed from the street at the corner with Borgo San Jacopo, the fact was considered a true miracle resulting from the poignant irony characterizing the artist’s works. After its restoration – following various vandalistic acts and an attempted theft – the Madonna holding her breath has returned, just like the trashcans under her nose.
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