Pope Clement XI's Fountain
Santa Maria in Cosmedin
This is a corner of Rome that nowadays seems to be one of those most filled with a wealth of ancient memories, both pagan and Christian. Archaeologists and restorers alike have been unusually lucky in their finds here, but when this fountain was built (1719) it was uninhabited and off the beaten path, a sorry place. One source stated: "not only is there nothing of any kind worth seeing, but everything seems mean, vile, abject, rough and abandoned." It was impossible in summer because of the dust and in winter because of the mud, which passers-by considered shocking.
In this corner of Rome, of all places, Pope Clement XI commissioned Carlo Bizzaccheri, an architect from Perugia, to erect a fountain as part of the project to refurbish the square outside the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. On August 11, 1717 work began on the foundations. The first stone was privately blessed and some medals were thrown in. The medals bore the images of the Blessed Virgin, for whom the church is named, and of St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of water.
Bizzaccheri, who had the good idea of taking Pope Clement's crest as his inspiration, designed a great octagonal basin with concave sides, so that the whole formed an 8-pointed star, part of the Pope's Albani family crest. He repeated the same contour in a single step around, but hardly wider than, the fountain (c. 13m in diameter). The step -- now almost invisible, because the ground has risen -- is in turn surrounded by a circular base, itself enclosed by a ring of 16 posts joined by an iron railing.
The whole fountain is made of travertine and, in the center, two powerful, scaly tritons (the work of Francesco Moratti) rise above a group of rocky outcrops (carved by Filippo Bai) and decorated with aquatic plants. The overly huge tritons are kneeling back-to-back with their tails entwined, their raised arms supporting a second basin shaped to look like an open seashell. The basin also has Pope Clement's coat-of-arms carved on opposite sides (three hillocks beneath a star). In the center of this shell are three small mounds from which the water rises. Originally, this reached the height of around four hands (90cm/3ft) but today it only manages a trickle.
I think water is a congenital problem for this lovely fountain of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Because it was conceived with only six ounces of Aqua Felice, piped in from the cistern on the Capitoline Hill at the request of the pontiff, who was particularly fond of this fountain; so much so that he made the request in his own hand, setting out his wishes in detail and in a few, very direct words. The pontiff stated that more water was to be added in the form of two ounces donated "by the generous Conservatori of the Roman People (City Administrators)." In all, the fountain was provided with eight ounces of water which, over the years, have been reduced to only two. Compare that with the fountain at Santa Maria in Trastevere, which has fifty-six! It was probably the scant supply of water that led, in the 19th century, to the removal of the four groups, with the crests of His Holiness, from each of which two wide jets fall into the cup of the fountain without being in the way or making drinking difficult.
