Fontana di Trevi

Known worldwide, the Trevi Fountain is a magnificent example of Baroque sculpture. Despite the 18th-century construction of the fountain, water has long been associated with the location. One of the most significant water sources in the old city was the Aqua Virgo, which was built in 19 BC. The aqueduct's deterioration, caused by Gothic invaders in the sixth century, paralleled the city's own decline.

Restoring the city’s ancient water sources heralded Rome’s resurgence in the Renaissance, and Leon Battista Alberti helped renovate the Aqua Virgo aqueduct in 1453. After failed initiatives involving notable painters like Gianlorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, Pope Clement XII finally commissioned Roman architect Nicola Salvi to design a suitable Baroque monument to honor the now-rechristened Acqua Vergine in the 1730s.

Salvi created a masterful plan that combined the towering classical façade of the Palazzo Poli behind with the new organic shape of the enormous fountain, a mountain of porous Travertine stone that is fully 86 feet high and 160 feet broad. The sea-titan Oceanus leads the flow of the pouring waters as seahorses and tritons play all around him in Salvi's epic masterpiece of ancient mythology. Meanwhile, artificial rocks crash down from the palazzo and into the square below.

Location: Piazza di Trevi, 00187 Roma RM, Italy