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Folklore has it that this Roman sepulcher served as the Devil's throne.
Aelius Callistion, a freedman of Emperor Hadrian, would have never imagined that his then fashionable temple-shaped sepulcher would become popular in Roman folklore. Indeed, as the sepulcher fell to ruins, it strangely started assuming the shape of a great chair or throne. Wayfarers and others who maintained seedy reputations were said to lurk in its shadows and light mysterious fires. This often gave the ruins a glowing appearance amid the night sky. According to legends from the Middle Ages, the Devil used the ruins as a throne and caused its collapse. This gave rise to the ruin’s moniker. The name stuck, and until the 1950s, the square was known as Piazza della Sedia del Diavolo.
