BALCONY SCENES
Featuring a religious leader, a style icon and a pair of star-crossed lovers, we present famous ...
Iconic personalities and places up high.
No balcony
in the world has borne more Popes than the Vatican’s Loggia delle Benedizioni. Every new Pope since the 17th century has appeared before the public on the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica. The Pope also gives his ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing from here at Christmas and Easter, giving the balcony its name, which means ‘Loggia of the Blessings’.
The cast iron balconies
of New Orleans were nearly lost for good in the early 20th century. Plans to beautify the city included the removal of the verandahs, which had mostly been made by local craftsmen. Fortunately, this idea didn’t find favour with everyone, and many of the balconies were allowed to stay. They remain an intrinsic part of the US city’s image to this day.
Miss Piggy
and Kermit the Frog may be The Muppet Show’s best-known characters, but don’t forget Statler and Waldorf, the two curmudgeonly old men who call out acerbically humorous remarks from the puppet world’s most famous balcony.
The balcony
of the Ambassador Hotel in New York sprang to prominence when Marilyn Monroe, then 28, was photographed there. Keen to take her career to new heights, the future style icon wanted the world to see her as more than the ‘dumb blonde’ of her earlier movies.
A tender kiss
that captured the public’s imagination. Kate Middleton and Prince William tied the knot in 2011. Like William’s parents Prince Charles and Princess Diana before them, the newlyweds appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace post wedding service.
One of the most
romantic balconies is actually a sarcophagus! In the early 20th century, the people of Verona, Italy, were so tired of having to tell the flocks of tourists that the balcony in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet didn’t exist that they cobbled one together from an old coffin.
If you want to admire
the royal box of Milan’s La Scala from the inside, you will either need to book a guided tour of the famous opera house or hope for an invitation from the Italian president. The opulent theatre balcony is reserved for leading lights from the world of politics and foreign dignitaries.