Fontana di Piazza Colonna

The Sovrintendenza records that della Porta first intended to reuse the first-century river-god statue known as Marforio against a rockwork backdrop beside the base of the column. In the final design the statue was dropped and the fountain was moved away from the column and set parallel to Via del Corso, as an oval portasanta basin with lion-head pilasters in white marble. Its original supply was the Acqua Vergine. The Sovrintendenza Capitolina records that the fountain stands near the aqueduct's main conduit, which was definitively brought back into service under Gregory XIII, feeding the whole Campo Marzio through branches running down from the slopes of the Pincio by way of Via Condotti. In 1830 Achille Stocchi altered the fountain during the repaving of Via del Corso, replacing the central basin and substituting two groups of paired dolphins with intertwined tails inside a shell for the four original water-spouting blocks. It was restored in 1991 and further maintained in 1999. No birth year is given here for Giacomo della Porta: two Roma Capitale pages give two different ones.