DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19775#0112
FOUNTAIN OF TREVI,
ROME.
TREVI, which gives its name to one of the
fourteen " regions " of Rome, means the
cross-roads. In Imperial times the long
street leading straight from the Forum of
Trajan struck across the street now called Tritone,
by the arch of Claudius. The place was called the
Fountain of Trevi long before the present splendid
fountain was built. The name is connected now with
the fountain, for who, hearing it, thinks of anything
but the great sea-god, the plunging horses, the
ceaseless rush and gush of the Virgin Water below
that splendid facade ? From the days of Agrippa the
water has borne its name—given it in memory of a
maiden who, meeting a tired and thiisty troop of
Roman soldiers, marching between Palestrina and
Tivoli, led them to a secret spring, hidden in the
hills, fresh and ice cold, known only to the
shepherds. Agrippa in 733 first brought it to
Rome to feed his baths near the Pantheon, when its
advent was celebrated by fifty-nine days of feast-
ing. It originates on the old Via Collatinus,
halfway between Tivoli and Palestrina, and was
brought into Rome by a subterannean channel
fourteen miles long. The aqueduct passes near
Ponte Nomentano, crosses the Via Nomentana and
Via Salaria, and, having traversed Villa Borghese,
divides at the foot of the Trinita dei Monti into
two streams, one of which flows under Via
Condotti, while the other debouches at Trevi.
In later Roman times it suffered much from
being turned aside to feed the Roman villas out-
side the walls. It was no one's business to
preserve its aqueducts for a time, and it lost its
old reputation for purity, which, Pliny says,
caused it at one time to be ranked higher than
the famous Aqua Marcia. Under Trajan the
raids on it were put a stop to, and the water, in
nineteen aqueducts, was dispersed over a great part
of the town. Rome, which was accustomed to
flood vast spaces for naval combats, and to use
millions of gallons in the public baths, was poorly
provided in private houses. In the time of the
Empire, and long after, water was carried about
by water-carriers. Sixtus V. was the first to
inaugurate that system of fountains for which
Rome is so famous, and which Paul III. com-
pleted by carrying the waters of Bracciano to the
Janiculum. The water of Trevi has been pro-
nounced in analysis to be of great purity, and in
18 r 9 it was still carried in barrels to many
houses and convents in the town. Clement VII.,
Paul III., and Gregory XIII. would never drink
any other, and took it with them on journeys,
even out of Italy.
It is thought that in classic times a fountain
must have stood near where the famous one is now
placed, for an inscription was found in the immediate
neighbourhood which evidently belonged to one :
O JO
" Nymph of this place, guardian of the sacred stream,
I sleep, watch o'er me, while its murmur fills my dream:
O, you who approach this fount and tread its marbles,
Disturb me not, if you bathe or drink, be silent."
Nicholas V. had already begun a fountain ;
by three aqueducts, through three masks, the
water flowed into a marble shell. This was the
work of Leon Battista Alberta, and we cannot
help giving a sigh to one of the beautiful lost
works of the Renaissance, At that time, as
Vasari tells us, it looked towards Piazza Poli, but
Urban VIII. turned it round, as it is at present.
In Via Nazzareno may be seen the low door which
gives access to the aqueduct. It is large enough for
a boat with two men to go up it for some distance.
The archives relate that on July 8th, 1643,
Pope Urban left the Vatican and went to stay at
Monte Cavallo, and stopped on his way to see
the Fountain of Trevi, which had just been
turned about. Above it were the arms of
Nicholas V., who had restored it. Pope Urban
threw down the houses that had stood behind it
and made a piazza, so that it could be seen
from Monte Cavallo, and the pressure of the
water being increased, it rose much higher than
before. This Pope proposed to erect a grand
fountain, and, with Bernini's co-operation, planned
to adorn it with statues taken from the tomb of
Cecilia Metella ; but the popular outcry against
dismantling this splendid relic of antiquity was so
strong that the Pope thought it prudent to
abandon his project. Pope Urban laid a very
unpopular tax upon wine, and Pasquino wrote
the following couplet upon him :
" Urban having raised the tax upon wine,
Regaled the people of the Quirinal with water."
(
1I>2
)
ROME.
TREVI, which gives its name to one of the
fourteen " regions " of Rome, means the
cross-roads. In Imperial times the long
street leading straight from the Forum of
Trajan struck across the street now called Tritone,
by the arch of Claudius. The place was called the
Fountain of Trevi long before the present splendid
fountain was built. The name is connected now with
the fountain, for who, hearing it, thinks of anything
but the great sea-god, the plunging horses, the
ceaseless rush and gush of the Virgin Water below
that splendid facade ? From the days of Agrippa the
water has borne its name—given it in memory of a
maiden who, meeting a tired and thiisty troop of
Roman soldiers, marching between Palestrina and
Tivoli, led them to a secret spring, hidden in the
hills, fresh and ice cold, known only to the
shepherds. Agrippa in 733 first brought it to
Rome to feed his baths near the Pantheon, when its
advent was celebrated by fifty-nine days of feast-
ing. It originates on the old Via Collatinus,
halfway between Tivoli and Palestrina, and was
brought into Rome by a subterannean channel
fourteen miles long. The aqueduct passes near
Ponte Nomentano, crosses the Via Nomentana and
Via Salaria, and, having traversed Villa Borghese,
divides at the foot of the Trinita dei Monti into
two streams, one of which flows under Via
Condotti, while the other debouches at Trevi.
In later Roman times it suffered much from
being turned aside to feed the Roman villas out-
side the walls. It was no one's business to
preserve its aqueducts for a time, and it lost its
old reputation for purity, which, Pliny says,
caused it at one time to be ranked higher than
the famous Aqua Marcia. Under Trajan the
raids on it were put a stop to, and the water, in
nineteen aqueducts, was dispersed over a great part
of the town. Rome, which was accustomed to
flood vast spaces for naval combats, and to use
millions of gallons in the public baths, was poorly
provided in private houses. In the time of the
Empire, and long after, water was carried about
by water-carriers. Sixtus V. was the first to
inaugurate that system of fountains for which
Rome is so famous, and which Paul III. com-
pleted by carrying the waters of Bracciano to the
Janiculum. The water of Trevi has been pro-
nounced in analysis to be of great purity, and in
18 r 9 it was still carried in barrels to many
houses and convents in the town. Clement VII.,
Paul III., and Gregory XIII. would never drink
any other, and took it with them on journeys,
even out of Italy.
It is thought that in classic times a fountain
must have stood near where the famous one is now
placed, for an inscription was found in the immediate
neighbourhood which evidently belonged to one :
O JO
" Nymph of this place, guardian of the sacred stream,
I sleep, watch o'er me, while its murmur fills my dream:
O, you who approach this fount and tread its marbles,
Disturb me not, if you bathe or drink, be silent."
Nicholas V. had already begun a fountain ;
by three aqueducts, through three masks, the
water flowed into a marble shell. This was the
work of Leon Battista Alberta, and we cannot
help giving a sigh to one of the beautiful lost
works of the Renaissance, At that time, as
Vasari tells us, it looked towards Piazza Poli, but
Urban VIII. turned it round, as it is at present.
In Via Nazzareno may be seen the low door which
gives access to the aqueduct. It is large enough for
a boat with two men to go up it for some distance.
The archives relate that on July 8th, 1643,
Pope Urban left the Vatican and went to stay at
Monte Cavallo, and stopped on his way to see
the Fountain of Trevi, which had just been
turned about. Above it were the arms of
Nicholas V., who had restored it. Pope Urban
threw down the houses that had stood behind it
and made a piazza, so that it could be seen
from Monte Cavallo, and the pressure of the
water being increased, it rose much higher than
before. This Pope proposed to erect a grand
fountain, and, with Bernini's co-operation, planned
to adorn it with statues taken from the tomb of
Cecilia Metella ; but the popular outcry against
dismantling this splendid relic of antiquity was so
strong that the Pope thought it prudent to
abandon his project. Pope Urban laid a very
unpopular tax upon wine, and Pasquino wrote
the following couplet upon him :
" Urban having raised the tax upon wine,
Regaled the people of the Quirinal with water."
(
1I>2
)