The Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome

When in Rome… Fountain of the Four Rivers

This When in Rome… Foutain of the Four Rivers blog article is written for the guests of the Hostel Chaplin Bed and Breakfast and B&B Little Italy in Rome.        All Hotels and B&B’s in Rome The 17m tall obelisk in the middle of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s fountain of the four rivers in the middle of Piazza Navona in Rome originally stood in the Circus Maxentius along the Via Appia in the same city. Bernini designed the fountain in 1651. The approximately 5m tall, white, marble statues surrounding the obelisk represent the Danube, the Nile, the Ganges and the Rio de la Plata, one river for each of the continents known at the time. For each one of the statues Bernini got a different assistant to tdo the actual work, whereas the palm tree, the lion and the horse and the 9m high rock were done by Bernini himself. The work was commissioned by Pope Innocenzo X, a member of the Pamphilj family, whose coat of arms, a dove with an olive branch, can be seen on the gilded cross on top of the obelisk.

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