The fountains in Rome for more than two thousand years supply the city with drinking water and decorate its squares. In total, there are more than two thousand fountains in the Eternal City, and fifty of them are monumental, and hundreds are smaller.
Fountains in the era of Antiquity and Renaissance
During the time of the Roman Empire, in 98 AD, the consul Sextus Julius Frontinus was considered the custodian of the city's water. At that time, there were nine aqueducts in Rome that carried water to a 591 public pool. Water was delivered to the emperor’s house, private villas and 39 magnificent fountains. Each fountain was connected to two different aqueducts. If one of them stopped supplying water, then the monumental fountains in Rome continued to work. They stopped decorating the city with the fall of the Roman Empire.
In the 14th century, Pontiff Nicholas V, a very learned man, ordered hundreds of translations from Greek and Latin to study the work of aqueducts and fountains. He decided to decorate the city and make it a worthy capital of the Christian world. First, he began to restore the ruined Roman aqueduct, which carried clear water from afar into the city (distance - 13 km), and revive the Roman custom: the completion of the construction of the aqueduct was marked by the appearance of a large memorial fountain. He instructed L. B. Alberti to build a fountain in the walls, where the Trevi Fountain is now located, as well as in squares. Alberti expanded, changed the Acqua Vergine aqueduct that filled this fountain. He also began to supply water to the famous baroque fountains in Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona.
During the Renaissance, one of the first fountains in the form of a round bowl on a pedestal was built on the square of Santa Maria de Trastvere. He became a role model in many capitals of Western Europe.
Baroque era
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the popes continued to reconstruct the aqueducts and install more and more fountains in Rome.
They were filled with allegorical sculptures filled with emotions and movement. In them, sculptures were the main element, and water was used to revitalize and decorate them.
The most famous fountains of this time
- Fountains on St. Peter's Square by Carlo Moderno (1614) and D.L. Bernini (1677).
- Triton Fountain in Piazza Barberini (D.L. Bernini, 1642)
- Piazza Navona is a grandiose water theater, consisting of three fountains.
- The Trevi Fountain was supposed to glorify three popes: Clement XII, Benedict XIV and Clement XIII. The architect working on the grandiose project was Nicolo Salvi. It is in it that tourists throw coins to return here again.
In those days, fountains in Rome worked under the influence of gravity. The water source should have been above the fountain itself. Now they are rebuilt, using gravity and mechanical pumps.
Semi-sunken ship
The Barcaccia Fountain in Rome is located in Plaza de España. Pope Urban VIII in 1623 commissioned Pietro Bernini to erect a new fountain that will continue to adorn the Eternal City. According to legend, in 1598 the Tiber River flooded Rome and brought a small boat to the center of the square. This inspired the architect to create an unusual project.
The sculptural fountain, on which is the coat of arms of the Barberini family in memory of the ancestors of Pope Urban VIII, is made in the form of a half-sunken ship. Water from its seven points pours into a small pool. The construction was completed in 1627. In our millennium, restoration work was carried out in it.
Neptune Fountain, 1572
Initially, there was not a single sculpture in the three-part fountain built in the northern part of Piazza Navona. But later, after three hundred years, in the 19th century, it was supplemented with impressive sculptures. Its northern part shows the god of the sea, who fights with octopuses (sculptor - Antonio della Bitta).
It is surrounded by sea horses, newts and mermaids. At the southern end, a Moor figure battles a dolphin. Grigorio Zappala sculpted "Nereid with Cupids and Walruses." Between them, in the center, is the grandiose structure of D. L. Bernini - the fountain of the Four Rivers (1648-1651).
He deserves a more detailed description. The rivers of four continents are represented in it in the form of people. Africa is represented by the figure of the Nile, Asia by the Ganges, Europe by the Danube, America by the river La Plata, the border of Uruguay and Argentina. Above all towers an Egyptian obelisk sixteen meters high. It is crowned with a cross and the emblem of the Pamphili family, which was represented by Pope Innocent X. Their family palace was located on Navona Square. The fountain of the four rivers is Bernini's ingenious creation; it amazes with the magnificence, grandeur and proportionality of its parts. The harmony of this work of art attracts many tourists to it.
Biggest fountain
The most famous fountain in Rome, built in the Baroque style, is called Trevi. It stands at the junction of three roads (tre vie), which means the end point. Presumably with the help of a virgin, the ancient Romans found a source of clean water. This scene is presented on the facade of the current fountain. At the initiative of Pope Clement XII, work to restore it began in 1732 and ended thirty years later. Most of the structure is made of travertine stone mined near Tivoli.
The Trevi Fountain adjoins the facade of the Polly Palace and is perceived with it as a whole. Neptune leaves the central niche. He sits on a sea shell driven by newts and sea horses with fish tails. Along the sides of the fountain is decorated with allegorical figures: Abundance spills water from its urn, Salubriti holds the cup from which the snake drinks. The bas-reliefs show the Romans finding clean water with the help of a young girl. How the mighty palace looks like the Trevi Fountain. Rome, Italy, proud of this magnificent construction, issued a postage stamp dedicated to it. It is especially beautiful in the evening and at night, when the blue backlight is working and significantly fewer tourists. The sound of water relieves fatigue and soothes nervous nerves.
Coins are thrown at him every minute. According to legend, they should be thrown with the right hand over the left shoulder. For a year, it finds about three thousand euros, which are used to subsidize a supermarket for those in need of Rome.
Late Italian Renaissance
In Piazza Mattei between 1580-1588, the Turtle Fountain was built by architect Giacomo della Porte and sculptor Taddeo Landini. Bronze turtles in the upper vase of the basin were cast either by D. L. Bernini or Andrea Sacchi and added in 1658 or 1859.
It was intended to supply the Romans with drinking water and was famous for its purity. Water flowed through the aqueduct from the village of Salon in the Albanian mountains.
It was one of the few fountains built not for the pope, but for a private individual, philanthropist Muzio Mattei. His banking family dates back to the early Roman period.
The banker wanted the fountain to be near his house, paid the costs of moving the structure and expanding the area near the house.
The fountain is made of African marble in the form of a bowl on a pedestal, which is surrounded by bronze figures of four young boys and eight dolphins. Each young man rests his foot on the dolphin's head, and with his hand holds on the edge of the vase. Water first hits up, falls into the bowl and pours out from the mouth of a dolphin into a sink, and then into a square large pool.
Copies
Its first replica was made in the 1900s and bought by William and Ethel Crocker for the Hillsboro estate in California.
There are four more copies of the Fontana Delle Tartarughe in the United States in Florida, San Francisco, California, and Newport.
Talking statues of Rome
In addition to the usual fountains in Rome there are "talking".
Usually they adjoin the walls, and through them people transmit, or rather transmit, notes of different contents to each other. An example is the fountains of Babuino and del Facino.
The beauty of Rome's fountains inspires musicians and poets, artists and directors, architects and sculptors. In the Eternal City, it is unrealistic to reveal all its secrets in one visit. It has a lot of beautiful places. You can come to Rome just to see all of its fountains. No, of course, you won’t be able to see all of them, but some of them will be remembered forever. Small and large, modest and elaborate, they are all works of art. Anyone who manages to inspect at least a small part of them will be fascinated by them.