Fontana della Navicella

The Sovrintendenza Capitolina records that the first mention of a navicella here is of 1484, by Pomponio Leto, and refers to an earlier sculpture, perhaps Roman, and that the present sculpture was made in 1518 and 1519 for Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, presumably by Sansovino, who had restored the church for the same cardinal in 1513 and 1514. It was adapted as a fountain in 1931 during the widening of the road, when its orientation was changed and a low elliptical basin was made at its base; from that year it was fed from a secondary branch of the Acqua Felice. The prow now faces the historic centre with the sides parallel to the church portico, where it once stood with the stern towards the portico. Roma Capitale reports a legend that makes the little ship an ex-voto to Isis from sailors of the Castra Peregrinorum or the Castra Misenantium, the Misenum fleet sailors quartered on the Caelian who worked the Colosseum's velarium. The fountain was restored in 2003 and 2004; in September 2005 an act of vandalism detached and removed the animal protome, and the recovered pieces were reassembled.