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Mostra dell'Acqua Paola al Gianicolo (Fontanone)

Historic site · Trastevere, Italy

The terminal display of the Acqua Paola aqueduct on the Janiculum, built on the model of a triumphal arch with five arches, columns and a wide attic. Roma Capitale states that the front of the fountain is always accessible; that the small garden behind it, reached by a stair at via Garibaldi 30, is open only to accompanied groups of up to 25, and to individual visitors on a published calendar, in both cases by prior booking on 060608 between 09:00 and 19:00; and that admission is EUR 4.00 full, EUR 3.00 reduced, and free for residents of Rome and the metropolitan area on production of proof of residence and for MIC cardholders.

History

Roma Capitale records that Paul V Borghese commissioned it after his restoration of the Traiano aqueduct in 1608, and that it was built in 1610-1614 by Giovanni Fontana (1540-1614) assisted by Flaminio Ponzio (1560-1613). The marbles are spolia from the Roman Forum and from the Temple of Minerva in the Forum of Nerva, and the red and grey granite columns came from the Constantinian St Peter's. Carlo Fontana (1638-1714) remodelled the front to its present form, and the municipal record dates the work 1610-1614 and 1690-1693. French cannon damaged it in 1849; it was restored in 1859, 1934, the 1950s and, by the Amministrazione Capitolina, in 2002-2004. From 1901 to the 1930s its water fed a hydroelectric station. Roma Capitale also notes an error in the attic inscription: it credits the restoration of the Alsietina, when the aqueduct actually restored was the Aqua Traiana.

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