Description
The Trevi Fountain is Rome's largest Baroque fountain: a palace facade turned into a seascape, with a god advancing among rocks and winged horses, in the Trevi district. It stands in a square so small that you discover its immensity all of a sudden.
The theme is the sea. In the middle of the big niche framed by columns stands Oceanus, upright on a shell-shaped chariot. The two winged horses pulling him have nicknames: the one on the left is the "restless horse," the other the "calm horse," like the sea in its two moods.
In the two side niches stand Health and Abundance, the latter with a horn overflowing with fruit and coins. Above, two reliefs tell where the water comes from: Agrippa approving the aqueduct and the girl pointing the soldiers to the spring. It is the legend that gives the Aqua Virgo its name, the same water that still arrives today.
Higher up, four Corinthian columns hold the upper level, with four allegorical statues of the fruits of the earth and of gardens, and in the center the coat of arms of Clement XII held by two figures of Fame. The whole recalls a Roman triumphal arch.
Around it the travertine rockwork is a sculpted garden: a caper plant, a wild fig, a prickly pear, an artichoke, ivy, lake reeds, a grapevine with its bunches. A snail and a lizard hide among the leaves. It is worth a close look before you hunt for a spot on the edge of the basin.
The fountain had a very long gestation. Bernini had begun the works for Urban VIII, paying for them partly with a tax on wine that the Romans hated, but the project stopped when the funds ended up in the war against Parma.
In 1731 Clement XII called a competition and Nicola Salvi won. Part of the money came from the lottery, revived for the occasion. Work began in 1732 and lasted thirty years: Salvi died in 1751, the sculptor Maini the year after, and the fountain was inaugurated in 1762, after the pope had already "inaugurated" it ahead of time.
Two centuries later, in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, Anita Ekberg stepped into it in an evening gown, calling Marcello Mastroianni to join her: it is one of the most famous scenes in Italian cinema. Tradition says that whoever tosses a coin over their shoulder, eyes closed, will return to Rome.
Don't miss
• Oceanus and his horses.
• The two reliefs with the spring and Agrippa.
• The rockwork with its sculpted plants.
• The vase called the "Ace of Cups."
Did you know?
• The big vase called the "Ace of Cups," on the left, according to a well-known anecdote was put there to block the view of a barber who criticized the works.
• The water comes from the Aqua Virgo, Agrippa's aqueduct, in service for more than two thousand years.
• The custom of tossing a coin over your shoulder is attributed to the German archaeologist Wolfgang Helbig.
• The coins collected, thousands of euros a day, go to Caritas of Rome.
The theme is the sea. In the middle of the big niche framed by columns stands Oceanus, upright on a shell-shaped chariot. The two winged horses pulling him have nicknames: the one on the left is the "restless horse," the other the "calm horse," like the sea in its two moods.
In the two side niches stand Health and Abundance, the latter with a horn overflowing with fruit and coins. Above, two reliefs tell where the water comes from: Agrippa approving the aqueduct and the girl pointing the soldiers to the spring. It is the legend that gives the Aqua Virgo its name, the same water that still arrives today.
Higher up, four Corinthian columns hold the upper level, with four allegorical statues of the fruits of the earth and of gardens, and in the center the coat of arms of Clement XII held by two figures of Fame. The whole recalls a Roman triumphal arch.
Around it the travertine rockwork is a sculpted garden: a caper plant, a wild fig, a prickly pear, an artichoke, ivy, lake reeds, a grapevine with its bunches. A snail and a lizard hide among the leaves. It is worth a close look before you hunt for a spot on the edge of the basin.
The fountain had a very long gestation. Bernini had begun the works for Urban VIII, paying for them partly with a tax on wine that the Romans hated, but the project stopped when the funds ended up in the war against Parma.
In 1731 Clement XII called a competition and Nicola Salvi won. Part of the money came from the lottery, revived for the occasion. Work began in 1732 and lasted thirty years: Salvi died in 1751, the sculptor Maini the year after, and the fountain was inaugurated in 1762, after the pope had already "inaugurated" it ahead of time.
Two centuries later, in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, Anita Ekberg stepped into it in an evening gown, calling Marcello Mastroianni to join her: it is one of the most famous scenes in Italian cinema. Tradition says that whoever tosses a coin over their shoulder, eyes closed, will return to Rome.
Don't miss
• Oceanus and his horses.
• The two reliefs with the spring and Agrippa.
• The rockwork with its sculpted plants.
• The vase called the "Ace of Cups."
Did you know?
• The big vase called the "Ace of Cups," on the left, according to a well-known anecdote was put there to block the view of a barber who criticized the works.
• The water comes from the Aqua Virgo, Agrippa's aqueduct, in service for more than two thousand years.
• The custom of tossing a coin over your shoulder is attributed to the German archaeologist Wolfgang Helbig.
• The coins collected, thousands of euros a day, go to Caritas of Rome.