Fontana dell'Acqua Acetosa

In 1613 Paul V had the water analysed; it was found potable and held good for complaints of the kidneys, stomach, spleen and liver, and some bottled it to sell in the city. In 1619 he had Giovanni Vasanzio build a fountain, recorded by the plaque still low on the wall, though at that date the source was simply a wall the water ran from. Innocent X had it restored and Alexander VII commissioned the present fountain; the attribution to Bernini is probably false, and Andrea Sacchi and the architect Marco Antonio De' Rossi have both been proposed. In 1712 Clement XI ordered a further restoration after complaints of reduced flow, long queues and worsening water, recorded on a plaque above the central niche; the commission included the papal physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi and the architect Egidio Maria Bordoni. Paul V's dedicatory epigraph reads Renibus et stomacho, spleni corique medetur / Mille malis prodest ista salubris aqua: this healthful water is medicine for the kidneys, the stomach, the spleen and the heart, and is good for a thousand ills.