The Trevi Fountain in Rome
The Trevi Fountain is one of the most magnificent fountains that has ever been constructed. It is eighty-five feet tall and sixty-five feet wide. There are exquisite stone carvings of men and women as well as horses that depict a beautiful scene of the taming the great waters by the Roman Gods. The Trevi fountain is located in the Trevi district in
Legend has it that the aqueduct; that later became the fountain, was discovered by Roman soldiers who were lead to the pure water source by a young girl. This great discovery caused Augustus to construct a twenty-two kilometer aqueduct leading into the city where the Trevi fountain is now found. This aqueduct was named Aqua Virgo, or The Virgin Waters, in honor of the young girl who aided the soldiers in finding it. This aqueduct was the water source of the hot baths of Agrippa, and the city of
During the fifteenth century is when the first work began on the Trevi fountain. Pope Nicholas V commissioned for a simple yet very large basin to be constructed at the point of the aqueduct. A humanist architect by the name of Leon Battista Alberti was the one who designed this original basin.
It was during the eighteenth century that Pope Clement XII began the task of creating the fountain that we see still standing to this day. The fountain that you can view today took almost three centuries to complete due to the fact that it suffered from numerous delays. The design of this fountain can mostly be attributed to Nicola Salvi who spent twenty years trying to gain support for the completion of the fountain. Sadly Nicola died before he ever got to see his fountain finished. The man who completed Nicola’s plans for the fountain was Giuseppe Pannini.