5th Page: Nicosia & Piazza del Popolo
They moved the fountain to a more worthy location as part of a much larger and more beautiful arrangement of fountains: The one at the southern end of Piazza Navona (toward the Palazzo Braschi). But this too will be dealt with at greater length later on. In 1577, due no doubt to the low pressure of the water, which probably did not rise up high enough from the fountain, it was decided to demolish the pedestal supporting the fountain basin and make a shorter one. The sculptor entrusted with the work was Leonardo Sormani da Sarzana. Finally, establishing a custom that would continue for many years, it was decided, at the same time or very soon afterwards, to install near the new fountain a "drinking place for horses" and, sometimes, a "wash tub for the poor washerwomen"; and, indeed, between 1582 and 1584 a horse trough and a cistern were built not far from the central fountain. Neither of these, nor the two inscriptions they bore, still exist. After Sixtus V succeeded Gregory XIII in 1585, Piazza del Popolo was endowed with the mighty obelisk which Pharaoh Seti I had had inscribed, around 33 centuries ago. With traditional Eastern modesty, he described himself as "Powerful Bull, Giver of Life like the Sun, Magnificent Gold, who raised splendid buildings in Heliopolis and built them more solidly than the four pillars of heaven" - please forgive me if I have interpreted the hieroglyphs incorrectly. At the time of Sixtus V, this red granite obelisk had been discovered, broken into three parts, in the Circus Maximus, where the Emperor Augustus had had it erected and dedicated to the Sun.
The Influence of Domenico Fontana
Thanks to the work of the architect Domenico Fontana, who - as will become clearer later - was the right arm (though almost always the left one) in building and demolishing Rome, this obelisk too - like those he had raised in St. Peter's Square, on the Esquiline Hill and at St. John Lateran - was put back together and erected. He set it on a high plinth right alongside the fountain in Piazza del Popolo, not immediately on the base but on four wedges or "four imitation bones made of bronze", as Fontana himself wrote, thus making the overall height of the fountain "including the height of the bones" 163.5 hands, or 36.79m [almost 120 ft]. Naturally, with this 'spire' too, as in the case of the other obelisks already mentioned, Pope Sixtus V wanted to "sanctify those stones which in the past had been instruments of a superstitious religion and merely a sign of profane pomp for those who professed Paganism" by exorcising them and erecting a Cross on the top of the fountain. Unfortunately, hardly any Romans know this - and again it was Fontana himself who recorded it thus: "and having expurgated and purged it of the profanity of the Heathens, Your Beatitude [Sixtus V] granted the same indulgence of fifteen years as at the others [spires]... to passers-by who worship and pray there". Though I have spoken about Sixtus V and the obelisk, I have so far said nothing about the grave risk to the fountain.
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