wall-
& the Aqua Vergine wall fountains
Readers of this website may well be surprised by the fact that this section of wall-fountains.us on the “Wall Fountains of Rome” begins with a wall fountain that, to all intents and purposes, seems to have no particular claim to antiquity, at least not one that would give it precedence over all the rest. Indeed, its characteristics do not indicate a wall fountain that is very old. This lovely square basin of the fountain, with corners so cut off as to make it look octagonal, is made of highly polished, greyish-deep blue bardiglio marble.The four large shells with coats-of-arms and the four basins are in excellent condition. The four bronze wolf’s-mouth spouts around the basin are also in bardiglio marble; and finally, the water itself, that abundant 56 ounce flow of Aqua Paola, rising, falling and spurting so precisely from every aperture.
So why begin this section of wall-fountains.us with this fountain? Maybe it’s out of a passion for the picturesque as, here, we are in the heart of “generous” Trastevere? Or is it our attraction for the beautiful church that brings us here? It’s not for any of those reasons, but because scrupulous and patient investigations and examination of documents have made it imperative to put this fountain before any of the other Roman fountains still in existence. There is no doubt whatever that this is the oldest water fountain: the one that, despite numerous and sometimes radical renovations – can be traced through documentary evidence to around the mid-15th century; and, what’s more, the original architectural shape of this outdoor fountain has remained almost unchanged ever since that time.
Yet the main reason – since I want to justify its place at the head of the line right here and now – is that a strange tradition associated with this fountain leads one to believe that its history may go right back as far as Ancient Rome. Though archeologists may throw up their hands in horror at the story of the “oil well”, it’s a legend that simply cannot be ignored.
 Let’s start by looking at the oldest document we have which, luckily for us, is not a written text but a small and very valuable plan of Rome. This sketch (which dates to somewhere around 1464), as well as some later maps that may have been based on it, gives a pretty clear picture of this wall fountain: perched at the top of a few steps, with its large square lower basin and two smaller basins raised one above the other on a central column.
Of the years that followed this first fundamental document, the fountain will speak for itself in the four short Latin inscriptions on its sides. Though insufficient to tell the full story and with a number of errors made, perhaps, by the stonemason (it’s usually his fault), the inscriptions do give us clues to what happened in those “missing” years. With all due care, but without making this an overly academic entry to the website, we will try to fill in the gaps – and, by the way, it might be a good idea to have those inscriptions corrected!
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Wall Fountains.us
