Fontana delle Anfore

The Sovrintendenza Capitolina, which owns the fountain, records that in 1924 the Comune held a national competition for five fountains in newly built quarters, and that the architect Pietro Lombardi (1894-1984) won the commission for piazza Mastro Giorgio, today piazza Testaccio. The fountain was inaugurated on 26 October 1927. Ground settlement soon appeared; in 1932 the administration proposed moving it to piazza dell'Emporio, Lombardi consented in 1933, and the rebuilding works ran in 1935. Within the redevelopment of piazza Testaccio that moved the market in 2012, the fountain was brought back: over 350 constituent blocks were dismantled, transported, restored and reassembled, each checked and numbered; a modern hydraulic system restored and reactivated the 45 water nozzles, long inactive; and lighting was installed inside the four rectangular basins for the first time. It was re-inaugurated on 24 January 2015. Lombardi made a series of rione fountains for the same competition, of which this is the Testaccio one.