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Fontana dei Dioscuri (Fontana di Monte Cavallo)

Historic site · Trevi, Italy

The fountain at the foot of the colossal Dioscuri group on Piazza del Quirinale. Roma Capitale states Rione: Trevi for it, attributes it to Giacomo della Porta and Raffaele Stern, dates it 1589 and 1818, gives its materials as granite and marble, and records its original supply as the acquedotto Felice.

History

Roma Capitale's account: the arrangement of the square was commissioned in 1586 by Sixtus V from Domenico Fontana, who restored the Dioscuri group and moved the sculptures towards the centre of the square, facing the Strada Pia; in 1589 a first fountain fed by the Acqua Felice was placed at the foot of the statues, and it was removed in 1783; the present fountain was made only in 1818, reusing a large grey granite basin that had been in the Roman Forum, with Raffaele Stern as consultant. The Italian Wikipedia article on the Fontana dei Dioscuri instead names Domenico Fontana as the author of the fountain itself.

On the origin of the sculptures the sources do not agree. The Italian Wikipedia articles say the group came from the Terme di Costantino. Roma Capitale's page does not say this; it states only that the group had stood on the Quirinal hill since antiquity.

Roma Capitale records a restoration in 2016 and an extraordinary maintenance intervention in 2025 under the PNRR - Caput Mundi programme.

Visit

Piazza del Quirinale, Roma RM

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