Bernini’s First Italian Fountains

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The Barcaccia, Bernini's first fountain, is a striking chef d'oeuvre built at the foot of the Trinita dei Monti in Piaza di Spagna. To this day, this area is flooded with Roman locals and tourists alike who enjoy conversation and each other's company. One of the city’s most stylish gathering places are the streets surrounding Bernini's fountain, which would undoubtedly have brought a smile to the great Bernini. In about 1630, the great artist built the very first water fountain of his career at the behest of Pope Ubano VIII. A large vessel slowly sinking into the Mediterranean is the fountain's main theme. The great 16th century flooding of the Tevere, which left the entire region inundated with water, was memorialized by the fountain according to writings from the time. In what turned out to be his one and only prolonged absence from Italy, Bernini {journeyed | traveled] to France in 1665.

Back Story of Landscape Fountains

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Back Story of Landscape Fountains Pope Nicholas V, himself a well educated man, governed the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455 during which time he commissioned many translations of ancient classic Greek documents into Latin. It was imperative for him to beautify the city of Rome to make it worthy of being known as the capital of the Christian world. In 1453 the Pope commissioned the rebuilding of the Aqua Vergine, an ancient Roman aqueduct which had carried clean drinking water into the city from eight miles away. Building a mostra, an imposing celebratory fountain built by ancient Romans to memorialize the entry point of an aqueduct, was a custom revived by Nicholas V. The present-day location of the Trevi Fountain was previously occupied by a wall fountain commissioned by the Pope and constructed by the architect Leon Battista Alberti. Modifications and extensions, included in the restored aqueduct, eventually supplied the Trevi Fountain and the well-known baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona with the necessary water supply.