Fontana di Piazza della Rotonda

A fountain fed by Acqua Vergine was built in 1575 under Gregory the Thirteenth Boncompagni (1575-1582) in front of the huge building of the Pantheon, at the centre of the square that hosted a very busy market until the past century. Only the elegant mistilinear pond made of African dull-grey marble built by Leonardo Sormani is what remains today of this fountain designed by Giacomo della Porta. The pond presented a chalice on a baluster standing at its centre and was decorated with four groups of mask and dauphins, originally built for the North fountain in Piazza Navona. The fountain of Piazza della Rotonda assumed its current appearance in 1711 under Clement the Eleventh Albani (1700-1721). The task of reconstructing it was assigned to the architect Filippo Barigioni, who inspired himself to the scheme of the Fountain of the Rivers by Bernini. In this new arrangement the central baluster was eliminated and replaced with a travertine cliff with four dauphins in the corners. An obelisk coming from the Iseum Campense (the temple built by Domitian in Campus Martius, in honour of the Egyptian goddesses Isis and Serapis) that since the fourteenth century stood in front of the nearby church of San Macuto stands out from the cliff on a pedestal. The heraldic coats of arms of pope Albani and of the pope with the tiara, keys, and cornucopia were placed on the South and North sides of the base. A bronze star symbol of the Albani  family decorates the top of the obelisk. The fountain was restored at the end of the past century and on that occasion the masks were replaced with copies by Luigi Amici. The originals, three of the sixteenth century and one of the eighteenth century, are kept in the Museum of Rome.