Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is a fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini and several others. Standing 26.3 metres (86 ft) high and 49.15 metres (161.3 ft) wide,[1] it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world.

The fountain has appeared in several notable films, including Roman Holiday, Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, the eponymous Three Coins in the Fountain, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, and Sabrina Goes to Rome.[2]
History before 1629Edit
The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie)[3] marks the terminal point[4] of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revived Aqua Virgo, one of the aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8.1 mi) from the city.

(This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 mi). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than 400 years.[5]
Commission, construction, and designEdit
In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Gian Lorenzo Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but the project was abandoned when the pope died. Though Bernini's project was never constructed, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it exists today. An early, influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti[6] one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga[7] and a French design by Edmé Bouchardon.[5] </ref>
Trevi Fountain
Italian: Fontana di Trevi

Competitions had become popular during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, as well as the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei – but due to the outcry in Rome over a Florentine having won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway.[8] Work began in 1732.
Salvi died in 1751 with his work half finished, but he had made sure a barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase,[9] called by Romans the asso di coppe, the "Ace of Cups", because of its resemblance to a Tarot card.[10]

Four different sculptors were hired to complete the fountain's decorations: Pietro Bracci (whose statue of Oceanus sits in the central niche), Filippo della Valle, Giovanni Grossi, and Andrea Bergondi.[11] Giuseppe Pannini was hired as architect.[12]
The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippaand Trivia, the Roman virgin.[13] It was officially opened and inaugurated on 22 May by Pope Clement XIII.[14]
The majority of the piece is made from Travertine stone, quarried near Tivoli, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Rome.[15]
GalleryEdit