Some facts and history about the Bocca della Verita
The original Bocca della Verita in Roma

The Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) is in front of the church of Santa Maria de Cosmedin, in Roma.

  • Size: diameter is 175 cm (about 5ft 9in); thickness is 19 cm (about 7in)
  • Weight: about 1230 Kg (about 2714 Lb)
  • Age: about 1800 years
  • What does it represent: we think the Bocca della Verità represents the God Oceanus (Οκεανοσ in Greek) and was probably the cover of a water collector inside one of the round Herakles temples in the Foro Boario area.
Massimo Portolani has written a book about it, you can dowload a free sample of the first 20 pages here.


Bocca della Verita details

Details of the sculpture from which it appears that the Bocca della Verità is a mask of the God Oceanus.

  • F is a fish engraved by somebody in the middle ages
  • C (left and right) appear not to be horns but rather crab claws or head of dolphins;
  • T could be dolphins heads; too worn to be easily recognizable


Oceanus in Bardo Museum

Fragment of a mosaic exhibited in Bardo museum in Tunis representing the God Oceanus. It is clearly visible that the horn is a part of a crab or shrimp.


Church of Santa Maria de Cosmedin

The Bocca della Verita medaillon was put in front of the church of Santa Maria de Cosmedin, in Piazza Bocca della Verità, Roma, by Mr.Placidi in 1632.

The real-size replica of the Bocca della Verita

Our real size replica of the Bocca della Verità is installed in the AELIA duty-free in Terminal E of Rome Fiumicino Airport


The Bocca della verita machine

The Mouth of truth manufactured by DPS-Promatic has been sold worldwide and translated in 28 languages since 1987