If you descend from the airy Piazza del Quirinale, following the Aqua Felice, there is an area known as the “Monti”. It is an extremely crowded area sporting a different environment as well. There is a fountain in this area, located along the church of the Madonna dei Monti. It sits on an octagonal base featuring four steps and a travertine pool. It is poorly decorated with the crests of Sixtus V alternated with the shield of the Roman People. There are two basins of different sizes in the center one raised over the other. There are also four masks on the underside of the bottom pool from which water flows. These masks do resemble the large masks that grace the fountain of the Pantheon and Villa Borghese. There is a partially legible inscription recording a restoration that took place in 1680 and another that occurred in 1880.
The fountain is rather decrepit and in poor conditions now, was constructed in 1588-89. It was a simple design by Jacopo della Porta. It was most likely inspired by the older fountain style, such as the one in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, which had yet been rebuilt.
The fountain was built very simply and very quickly, which was probably because the area was extremely crowded and crammed full of poor houses. The location of the Neophytes or converts College was a determining factor in the location of the site, this fountain, in fact, was often referred to as the “Convert’s Fountain”.