Fontana di Piazza d'Aracoeli
The fountain in the Piazza d'Aracoeli is a fountain in Rome, Italy, located at the base of the Capitoline Hill, in the little square with the same name.
Description
It is one of the first and simplest of Renaissance fountains that would embellish the city. Two circular basins, capture the water, the top ringed by children pouring water from jugs, while above them is the heraldic symbol of the papal family. Commissioned by Pope Sixtus V in 1589, the fountain was designed by Giacomo della Porta and constructed by Andrea Brasca, Pietro Gucci and Pace Naldini. In front of the fountain, once stood the facade of Santi Venanzio e Ansovino, razed and now replaced with by the roads and park-space near the Altare della Patria.
History
In 1587 the restoration and reinstatement of the ancient Aqua Alexandrina - from then on called Acqua Felice after the name of Pope Sixtus V, born Felice Peretti, the ruling pontiff - were completed. As previously done for the Aqua Virgo, works were started to create a secondary subterranean branch of the channel, in order to assure water provision in the areas of Viminal Hill and Quirinal Hill, then scarcely served, and in the area of the Tiber Island; consequently, the building of a certain number of fountains was also planned.
Pope Sixtus V commissioned the fountain to Giacomo Della Porta, who designed it in 1589, while the construction was carried out by Andrea Brasca, Pietro Gucci and Pace Naldini: it was a circular basin with two opposed bulges, giving it a vague oval shape, decorated with mascarons and lying on three steps with the same shape (the inner of which is smaller than the basin), surrounded by a narrow pool for the collection of water. In the middle of the basin a cubic marble block, with mascarons and adornments, sustained a goblet-shaped canister, on the top of which there was a basin containing four putti pouring water from as many amphoras. The fountain shares features, such as mascarons and simple basins with another of Della Porta's fountains: the Fontana del Pianto.
The banister of the fountain, formerly decorated with the coats of arms of the Roman People, was later adorned also with the coat of arm of the Chigi family, to which Pope Alexander VII (1655-1667) belonged: he furthermore added the trimontium, the heraldic symbol of the family, between the putti.
At the beginning of the 18th century, under the papacy of Clement XI, the two lower steps were removed and replaced by a big pool for the collection of the water, surrounded by a series of small stone columns linked by iron bars, probably under a design of Giambattista Contini. This is the present configuration of the fountain.
Bibliography
- Sergio Delli, “Le fontane di Roma”, Schwartz & Meyer Ed., Rome, 1985
References
- Thais:Roma-Fountains
External links
- The fountain of Piazza dell’Aracoeli
- Fountain Ara Coeli
Media related to Fontana di Bacco (Rome) at Wikimedia Commons
Preceded by Fontana del Pianto | Landmarks of Rome Fontana di Piazza d'Aracoeli | Succeeded by Fontana di Piazza Colonna |
- v
- t
- e
landmarks
Triumphal arches | |
---|---|
Aqueducts | |
Sewers | |
Public baths | |
Religious |
|
Fora | |
Civic | |
Entertainment | |
Palaces and villae | |
Column monuments | |
Commerce | |
Tombs |
|
Bridges |
basilicas
- Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
- Basilica of Saint Mary Major
- Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls
- Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican
- S. Lorenzo fuori le mura
- S. Agnese fuori le mura
- S. Agostino
- S. Anastasia al Palatino
- S. Andrea delle Fratte
- S. Andrea della Valle
- S. Antonio da Padova in Via Merulana
- S. Apollinare alle Terme
- Ss. Apostoli
- S. Balbina
- S. Bartolomeo all'Isola
- Ss. Bonifacio ed Alessio
- S. Camillo de Lellis
- S. Carlo al Corso
- S. Cecilia in Trastevere
- Ss. Celso e Giuliano
- S. Clemente
- Ss. Cosma e Damiano
- S. Crisogono
- S. Croce in Via Flaminia
- S. Croce in Gerusalemme
- S. Eugenio
- S. Eustachio
- S. Francesca Romana
- S. Giovanni a Porta Latina
- S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini
- Ss. Giovanni e Paolo
- S. Lorenzo in Damaso
- S. Lorenzo in Lucina
- S. Maria Ausiliatrice
- S. Marco
- S. Maria degli Angeli
- S. Maria in Montesanto
- S. Maria in Cosmedin
- S. Maria in Domnica
- S. Maria in Aracoeli
- S. Maria del Popolo
- S. Maria sopra Minerva
- S. Maria in Trastevere
- S. Maria in Via
- S. Maria in Via Lata
- S. Maria della Vittoria
- S. Martino ai Monti
- Ss. Nereo e Achilleo
- S. Nicola in Carcere
- S. Pancrazio
- Pantheon
- S. Pietro in Vincoli
- S. Prassede
- S. Pudenziana
- Ss. Quattro Coronati
- S. Saba
- S. Sabina
- Sacro Cuore di Maria
- Sacro Cuore di Cristo Re
- Sacro Cuore di Gesù a Castro Pretorio
- S. Sebastiano fuori le mura
- S. Silvestro in Capite
- S. Sisto Vecchio
- S. Sofia a Via Boccea
- S. Stefano Rotondo
- S. Teresa
- S. Vitale
- Arx
- Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi
- Castel Sant'Angelo
- Domus Internationalis Paulus VI
- Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga
- Palazzo Barberini
- Palazzo Barberini ai Giubbonari
- Palazzo Borghese
- Palazzo della Cancelleria
- Palazzo Chigi
- Palazzo Colonna
- Palazzo della Consulta
- Palazzo Farnese
- Palazzo Fusconi-Pighini
- Palazzo Giustinani
- Lateran Palace
- Palazzo Madama
- Palazzo Malta
- Palazzo di Giustizia
- Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
- Palazzo Mattei
- Palazzo del Quirinale
- Palazzo Pamphilj
- Palazzo Poli
- Palazzo Riario
- Palazzo Ruspoli
- Palazzo Spada
- Palazzo Valentini
- Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli
- Palazzo del Viminale
- Palazzo Wedekind
- Palazzo Zuccari
- Villa Farnesina
- Villa Giulia
- Villa Madama
- Api
- Acqua Felice
- Acqua Paola
- Babuino
- Barcaccia
- Il Facchino
- Marforio
- Moro
- Nasone
- Navicella
- Neptune
- Nettuno
- del Pantheon
- Pianto
- di Piazza d'Aracoeli
- di Piazza Colonna
- di Piazza Farnese
- della Piazza dei Quiriti
- di Piazza Nicosia
- in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere
- di Ponte Sisto
- Quattro Fiumi
- Quattro Fontane
- Tartarughe
- Trevi Fountain
- Tritons
- Tritone
- Altare della Patria (Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of Italy)
- Campo Verano
- Capocci Tower
- Column of the Immaculate Conception
- Conti Tower
- Hospital of the Holy Spirit
- Milizie Tower
- Sisto Bridge
- Spanish Steps
and public spaces
- Appian Way
- Campo de' Fiori
- Clivus Capitolinus
- Piazza Colonna
- Piazza d'Aracoeli
- Piazza del Popolo
- Piazza della Minerva
- Piazza della Repubblica
- Piazza Farnese
- Piazza Navona
- Piazza San Pietro
- Piazza di Spagna
- Piazza Venezia
- Via dei Coronari
- Via del Corso
- Via della Conciliazione
- Via dei Fori Imperiali
- Via Sacra
- Via Veneto
and zoos
art galleries
- Boncompagni Ludovisi Decorative Art Museum
- Capitoline Museums
- Casa di Goethe
- Doria Pamphilj Gallery
- Galleria Borghese
- Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna
- Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica
- Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
- Giorgio de Chirico House Museum
- Galleria Spada
- Jewish Museum of Rome
- Keats–Shelley Memorial House
- MAXXI
- Museo Archeologico Ostiense
- Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica
- Museo Civico di Zoologia
- Museo delle anime del Purgatorio
- Museo delle Mura
- Museo di Roma
- Museo di Roma in Trastevere
- Museo nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia
- Museo Nazionale Etrusco
- Museo Nazionale Romano
- Museo Storico Nazionale dell'Arte Sanitaria
- Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome
- Museum of Roman Civilization
- Museum of the Ara Pacis
- Museum of the Liberation of Rome
- National Museum of Oriental Art
- Palazzo Colonna
- Palazzo delle Esposizioni
- Pigorini National Museum
- Porta San Paolo Railway Museum
- Santa Cecilia Musical Instruments Museum
- Venanzo Crocetti Museum
Seven Hills | |
---|---|
of Rome Capital