Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but there was a time when Italy was the world’s Middle East (a collection of divided states where the great powers had their proxy wars)

Not a surprise to see Rome have so many based on that.

Stockholm also has famous canon balls lodged on buildings in the old town: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/stortorget-cannonball

They are supposed to be from the Blood Bath that happened there in the 16th century when Swedes and Danes still enjoyed killing each other frequently, but no wall survives this long with a metal ball in it, hence that’s apparently a fake thing by some smart 18th century building owners.

• FrontierProject

  today at 7:48 PM

  Yeah nobody who's ever seen a ballistic object hit anything is going to mistake that first image for a cannonball that was actually fired at the wall.

  • luma

    today at 10:07 PM

    > The cannonball crashed into the church and went through a first wall. It then ended on the altar of the Chapel of the Virgin. [...] The cannon ball was walled into the left wall of the Chapel and a commemorative epigraph was added to it.

    It wasn't showing the wall where it had crashed through, it's showing where the ball has been mounted into the wall for display.

    • kevin_thibedeau

      today at 10:22 PM

      The Aurelian wall looks like a ball was grouted in as well.

Fort Pulaski in Savannah, Georgia also has cannonballs embedded in the brick walls: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pulaski_National_Monument

• kjs3

  today at 4:12 PM

  Yup; it's a neat daytrip if you're in the area. But then Capt. Gillmore showed up with rifled cannons and showed why we don't use cannonballs any more. :-)

• csteubs

  today at 5:10 PM

  VMI has a number of cannonballs embedded in the turrets on the backside of Old Barracks as well. They're more placeholders now than anything, but were left in situ after General Hunter shelled and burned the then-arsenal during the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. One of my favorite points of intrigue as a cadet tour guide long ago.

• jweir

  today at 6:17 PM

  Lewes Delaware has the Cannonball house which was struck in the 1812 bombardment. Delightful town and beach, worth a visit.

Or Rome is the set of a real-life Truman Show.