List of fountains in Rome

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The 18th-century Trevi Fountain at night. Fontana di Trevi by night.JPG
The 18th-century Trevi Fountain at night.
Fontana del Tritone (1642). PiazzaBarberiniByRoeslerFranz.jpg
Fontana del Tritone (1642).
Fountains of St. Peter's Square by Carlo Maderno (1614) and Bernini (1677). Fountain of Carlo Maderno night.jpg
Fountains of St. Peter's Square by Carlo Maderno (1614) and Bernini (1677).
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1648-51); detail of the River Ganges Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi-Ganges.JPG
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1648-51); detail of the River Ganges
Fountain in front of Villa Medici on the Pincio Fountain in front of Villa Medici on Pincio Rome.jpg
Fountain in front of Villa Medici on the Pincio

This is a list of the notable fountains in Rome, Italy. Rome has fifty monumental fountains and hundreds of smaller fountains, over 2000 fountains in all, more than any other city in the world. [1] [2]

Contents

History

For more than two thousand years fountains have provided drinking water and decorated the piazzas of Rome. During the Roman Empire, in 98 AD, according to Sextus Julius Frontinus, the Roman consul who was named curator aquarum or guardian of the water of the city, Rome had nine aqueducts which fed 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins, not counting the water supplied to the Imperial household, baths and owners of private villas. Each of the major fountains was connected to two different aqueducts, in case one was shut down for service. [3]

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the aqueducts were wrecked or fell into disrepair, and the fountains stopped working. In the 14th century, Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455), a scholar who commissioned hundreds of translations of ancient Greek classics into Latin, decided to embellish the city and make it a worthy capital of the Christian world. In 1453 he began to rebuild the Acqua Vergine, the ruined Roman aqueduct which had brought clean drinking water to the city from eight miles (13 km) away. He also decided to revive the Roman custom of marking the arrival point of an aqueduct with a mostra, a grand commemorative fountain. He commissioned the architect Leon Battista Alberti to build a wall fountain where the Trevi Fountain is now located. Alberti restored, modified, and expanded the aqueduct that supplied both the Trevi Fountain as well as the famous baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona. [4]

One of the first new fountains to be built in Rome during the Renaissance was the Fountain in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere (1499), which was placed on the site of an earlier Roman fountain. Its design, based on an earlier Roman model, with a circular vasque on a pedestal pouring water into a basin below, became the model for many other fountains in Rome, and eventually for fountains in other cities, from Paris to London. [5]

During the 17th and 18th century the Roman popes reconstructed other ruined Roman aqueducts and built new display fountains to mark their termini, launching the golden age of the Roman fountain. The fountains of Rome, like the paintings of Rubens, were expressions of the new style of Baroque art. They were crowded with allegorical figures, and filled with emotion and movement. In these fountains, sculpture became the principal element, and the water was used simply to animate and decorate the sculptures. They, like baroque gardens, were "a visual representation of confidence and power." [6]

The most famous Roman fountains of this period include:

The fountains of Rome all operated purely by gravity- the source of water had to be higher than the fountain itself, and the difference in elevation and distance between the source and the fountain determined how high the fountain could shoot water. The fountain in St. Peter's Square was fed by the Paola aqueduct, restored in 1612, whose source was 266 feet (81 m) above sea level, which meant it could shoot water twenty feet up from the fountain. The Triton fountain benefited from its location in a valley, and the fact that it was fed by the Aqua Felice aqueduct, restored in 1587, which arrived in Rome at an elevation of 194 feet (59 m) above sea level (fasi), a difference of 130 feet (40 m) in elevation between the source and the fountain, which meant that the water from this fountain jetted sixteen feet straight up into the air from the conch shell of the Triton. [7]

The fountains of Piazza Navona, on the other hand, took their water from the Acqua Vergine, which had only a 23-foot (7.0 m) drop from the source to the fountains, which meant the water could only fall or trickle downwards, not jet very high upwards. For the Trevi Fountain, the architect Nicola Salvi compensated for this problem by sinking the fountain down into the ground, and by carefully designing the cascade so that the water churned and tumbled, to add movement and drama. [8]

Today all of the fountains have been rebuilt, and the Roman water system uses both gravity and mechanical pumps. Water is recycled and water from different aqueducts is sometimes mixed before it reaches the fountains and performs for the spectators. [9]

This (incomplete) list contains important fountains in the city:

Monumental fountains

These fountains were built at the termini of the restored aqueducts of Rome, to supply water to the population and to glorify the Popes who built them.

Decorative fountains

These fountains were linked to the restored aqueducts, decorated the piazzi, or squares, of Rome, and provided drinking water to the population around the squares.

Talking statues of Rome

Wall fountains

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piazza Navona</span> Public square in Rome, Italy

Piazza Navona is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the 1st century AD Stadium of Domitian and follows the form of the open space of the stadium in an elongated oval. The ancient Romans went there to watch the agones ("games"), and hence it was known as "Circus Agonalis". It is believed that over time the name changed to in avone to navone and eventually to navona.

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Trevi is the 2nd rione of Rome, Italy, identified by the initials R. II, located in Municipio I. The origin of its name is not clear, but the most accepted theory is that it comes from the Latin trivium, because there were three streets all leading to the current Piazza dei Crociferi, a square next to the modern Trevi square. Its coat of arms is made of three swords on a red background.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlo Maderno</span> Italian architect (1556–1629)

Carlo Maderno or Maderna was an Italian architect, born in today's Ticino, Switzerland, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were of key importance in the evolution of the Italian Baroque. He is often referred to as the brother of sculptor Stefano Maderno, but this is not universally agreed upon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palazzo Barberini</span> Palace in Rome now an art museum

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi</span> Fountain designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi is a fountain in the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. It was designed in 1651 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Pope Innocent X whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced onto the piazza as did the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone of which Innocent was the sponsor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giacomo della Porta</span> Italian architect (1532–1602)

Giacomo della Porta (1532–1602) was an Italian architect and sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontana del Moro</span> Fountain in Rome

Fontana del Moro is a fountain located at the southern end of the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. It depicts a nautical scene with tritons, dolphins, and a conch shell. It was originally designed by Giacomo della Porta in the 1570s with later contributions from Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 1650s. Bernini sculpted a large terracotta model of the central figure, which Giovanni Antonio Mari used as a guide when sculpting the final figure. There is a debate around whether or not the central figure was intended by Bernini to depict a Moor. Some of the original sculptures were moved to the Galleria Borghese in 1874. In 2011, the fountain was vandalized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acqua Vergine</span> Roman aqueduct

The Acqua Vergine is one of several Roman aqueducts that deliver pure drinking water to Rome. Its name derives from its predecessor Aqua Virgo, which was constructed by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in 19 BC. Its terminal castellum is located at the Baths of Agrippa, and it served the vicinity of Campus Martius through its various conduits. In an effort to restore fresh water to Rome during the Renaissance, Pope Nicholas V, in 1453, renovated the main channels of the Aqua Virgo and added numerous secondary conduits under Campo Marzio. The original terminus, called a mostra, which means showpiece, was the stately, dignified wall fountain designed by Leon Battista Alberti in Piazza dei Crociferi. Due to several additions and modifications to the end-most points of the conduits during the years that followed, during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the Acqua Vergine culminated in several magnificent mostre - the Trevi Fountain and the fountains of Piazza del Popolo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piazza del Popolo</span> Urban square in Rome

Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the poplars after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontana di Piazza Colonna</span>

The fountain in the Piazza Colonna is a fountain in Rome, Italy, designed by the architect Giacomo Della Porta and constructed by the Fiesole sculptor Rocco Rossi between 1575 and 1577.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barberini – Fontana di Trevi</span> Rome metro station

Barberini–Fontana di Trevi is an underground station on Line A of the Rome Metro, inaugurated in 1980 and situated under Piazza Barberini in Trevi. Originally, the station was simply named Barberini, and the name was extended in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piazza Barberini</span>

Piazza Barberini is a large piazza in the centro storico or city center of Rome, Italy and situated on the Quirinal Hill. It was created in the 16th century but many of the surrounding buildings have subsequently been rebuilt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontana delle Api</span> Fountain designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini

Fontana delle Api is a fountain located in the Piazza Barberini in Rome where the Via Veneto enters the piazza. It was sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and completed in April 1644.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fountain of Neptune, Rome</span> Fountain in Rome, Italy

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontana delle Tartarughe</span> Fountain in Rome, Italy

The Fontana delle Tartarughe is a fountain of the late Italian Renaissance, located in Piazza Mattei, in the Sant'Angelo district of Rome, Italy. It was built between 1580 and 1588 by the architect Giacomo della Porta and the sculptor Taddeo Landini. The bronze turtles around the upper basin, usually attributed either to Gian Lorenzo Bernini or Andrea Sacchi, were added in either 1658 or 1659 when the fountain was restored.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontana del Nettuno, Piazza del Popolo</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontana dell'Acqua Paola</span> Large fountain in Rome

The Fontana dell'Acqua Paola, also known as Il Fontanone or Mostra dell'Acqua Paola, is a monumental fountain located on the Janiculum Hill, near the church of San Pietro in Montorio, in Rome, Italy. It was built in 1612 to mark the end of the Acqua Paola aqueduct, restored by Pope Paul V, and took its name from him. It was the first major fountain on the right bank of the River Tiber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fountain of the Tritons</span> Fountain in Rome with multiple Tritons

The Fountain of the Tritons is a fountain in Rome (Italy), Piazza Bocca della Verità, in front of the basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. This fountain should be distinguished from the similarly named nearby Triton Fountain by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in the Piazza Barberini, with only a single Triton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Rome</span> Overview of and topical guide to Rome

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Rome:

References

  1. Pulvers, Marvin (2002). Roman Fountains. 2000 Fountains in Rome. A complete collection. Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider. p. 926. ISBN   9788882651763.
  2. "Italian culture and history: Fountain of Rome" . Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  3. Frontin, Les Aqueducs de la ville de Rome, translation and commentary by Pierre Grimal, Société d'édition Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1944.
  4. Pinto, John A. The Trevi Fountain. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1986.
  5. The fountain in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere originally had two upper basins, but the water pressure in the early Renaissance was so low that the water was unable to reach the upper basin, so the top basin was removed.
  6. Italian Gardens, a Cultural History, Helen Attlee. Francis Lincoln Limited, London 2006.
  7. Katherine Wentworth Rinne, The Fall and Rise of the Waters of Rome, collected in Marilyn Symmes, 'Fountains- Splash and Spectacle – Water and Design from the Renaissance to the Present,. Thames and Hudson, London, 1998 (pg. 54).
  8. Maria Ann Conneli and Marilyn Symmes, Fountains as propaganda, in Fountains, Splash and Spectacle – Water and Design from the Renaissance to the Present. Edited by Marilyn Symmes. Thames and Hudson, London, and Katherine Wentworth Rinne, The Fall and Rise of the Waters of Rome, in the same collection.
  9. Katherine Wentworth Rinne, collected in Marilyn Symmes, Fountains- Splash and Spectacle. (pg. 54).