It is hard to determine why the Jacopo fountain was never carried out; it was most likely because he died. The city definitely was not losing out as a result of this though.
The problem of the fountain remained unsolved until the time of Paul V. This was the pope that was responsible for a large number of fountains added to the city of Rome. There was an actual representation of the city of Rome, carved into wood by Giovanni Maggi, that has the Trevi Fountain in the same location as the Tempesta’s sketches of 1593 and 1606.The difference came in the design of the fountain, featuring a much larger façade, practically identical to the Moses Fountain, minus the three niches and sculptures.
However, this sketch does provide an accurate picture of the city during that time, and this plan for the fountain, with its clear façade is not part of the reality of that time, since we know the fountain was never created in this design.
In 1610, Paul V, decided to make the pathway for the Papal processional that was more direct and convenient, so he demolished all of the houses that were in the way. This created a straight line that connects the northern entrance of the Quirinale to the square at Trinita dei Monti. At the time of this reconstruction the Trevi Fountain was located in front of the new road, called the Via della Panetteria. Today, the fountain is located on the right.
The constructions also included opening up the street that created the crossroad, known as Piazza Sciarra. The goal was to make this street wider as well, and it ran alongside the Trevi fountain to the church of San Nicola in Arcione. Today this street corresponds exactly with the direct line of Via delle Muratte-Piazza di Trevi-Via del Lavatore.
For this construction project to be completed, it involved demolishing the last arches of the Trevi water aqueduct. This could be seen in the sketches by Duperac, as well as the sketch by Tempesta, interestingly it was not in the carving by Maggi. It also involved demolishing a small part of the fountain itself, because it made that section of the road to narrow. Therefore there much has been a plan to rebuild the fountain. It is actually in Maggi’s plan where we see the plan. His plan was being created as the demolishing was being done, because he did not depict the heaps of rubble or stone, but created a façade for the monument that had been chosen for the construction.
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