The Fountain of the Tritons, on Piazza Bocca della Verità, in front of the basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin (not to be confused with the Triton Fountain by Bernini, on Piazza Barberini). It was completed in 1715.
At 26.3 meters high and 49 meters wide, the Trevi Fountain is the largest Baroque fountain in Rome and one of the most famous in the world. It marks the end point of the reconstructed Aqua Virgo, one of the aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome.
On Piazza Navona, the Fountains of the Four Rivers, designed by Bernini in 1651 for Pope Innocent X, symbolizes the four major rivers of the four continents over which the pope ruled.
There are two fountains on St. Peter’s Square, the one pictured here was designed by Carlo Maderno in the 17th century, finely ornamenting the north side of the square, with two vasques and three jets of water coming from the mouths of three stone heads.
The Fountain of Neptune is a monumental fountain located on Piazza del Popolo, built in 1822-23 at the end of a newly built aqueduct, the Acqua Vergine Nuovo, showing Neptune with his trident, accompanied by two Tritons.
The Fountain of Acqua Paola, also known as Il Fontanone, is a monumental fountain located on the Janiculum Hill, near the church of San Pietro in Montorio. It was built in 1612 to mark the end of the Acqua Paola aqueduct, restored by Pope Paul V.
The Fountain in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere is believed to be the oldest fountain in Rome, possibly dating back to the 8th century. The current fountain is the work of Donato Bramante, with later additions by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Carlo Fontana.
The Turtle Fountain was built between 1580 and 1588 by the architect Giacomo della Porta and the sculptor Taddeo Landini. The bronze turtles, attributed either to Bernini or Andrea Sacchi, were added a century later when the fountain was restored.
The Baroque-style Fontana della Barcaccia, located at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna, was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII to Pietro Bernini in 1623, part of a Papal project to erect a fountain in every major piazza in Rome.
At the southern end of Piazza Navona, Fontana del Moro was designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1575; in 1653, the statue of the Moor, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, was added. The statues you see today are copies; the originals are at Galleria Borghese.
Rome is dotted with fountains – hundreds of them. From monumental to small, the city’s architectural landscape is very much characterized by the presence of ‘fontane,’ which for the past 2,000 years have decorated the squares and provided drinking water.
During the Roman Empire, Rome had eleven aqueducts providing water for 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins, in addition to the emperor’s house, private villas and public baths. The aqueducts fell into disrepair after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and it wasn’t until the Renaissance that some of them began being restored. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V ordered the restoration of the Acqua Vergine, which brought clean drinking water from 13 km away.
Pope Nicholas V also revived 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. Rome’s most famous fountain is still fed by aqueduct water from the same sources of the ancient Aqua Virgo.
During the Renaissance, additional new fountains were built, one of the first was the fountain in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere (1499), whose design, based on an earlier Roman model featuring a circular vasque on a pedestal pouring water into a basin below, became the model for many other fountains in Rome.
During the 17th and 18th century, Roman popes reconstructed other ruined Roman aqueducts and built new display fountains to mark their end point. This was the golden age of the Roman fountain, which became the expression of the new style of Baroque art, where the sculptures took center stage, and water served to animate and decorate them. Prime examples include the Fountain of St. Peter’s Square by Carlo Maderno, the fountains in Piazza Navona by Giacomo della Porta and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and of course the Trevi Fountain.
Feeling hot? Take a tour of Rome’s magnificent fountains (but please refrain from splashing into them when you visit).
