Architecture & Fountains

• architecture
• cityscapes
• Italy
• Rome
• sepia/ black & white

How is it possible that the Pantheon, the Coliseum and St. Peter's, with such detailed craftsmanship and resplendent columns, still stand with such immense grandeur? Sheer genius? It is the Roman fountains blended with the architecture that still take my breath away. Although most of the 280 fountains are splendid, I have my favorites which I pass on my regular walking route through the Centro Storico. The Fontana del Pantheon, built in 1575, with it's curved water flowing, fish fountainheads and sea creatures, adding magical delight in front of the Pantheon, in Piazza della Rotonda. There is the whimsical Fontana delle Tartarughe, with statues of young lads and tortoises, built in 1581-84, tucked away in the charming Piazza Mattei. The refined Fontana di Piazza Farnese, built in 1626, has two gigantic fountains with oversized, alluring bathtubs, in front of the Palazzo Farnese, which is now the prestigious French Embassy. Then there is the Fountains of St. Peter's Square, a matched pair, built in 1614, surely a spiritual oasis for many a pilgrim. The Fontana della Barcaccia, the leaking boat, was built in 1627-29, is in the posh shopping district at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna. There is also the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, built in 1651, the center of three fountains in Piazza Navona, with rocks that support four river gods and above them, an ancient Egyptian obelisk surmounted with the Pamphili family emblem of a dove with an olive twig. I could go on, but suffice is to say, that each fountain is a world into itself.

Still, when you take into consideration Rome's past some of its architectural significance can be overwhelmingly sad and inconceivable. Take the Colosseum. Although in ruins, there is probably no other building that gives off such an imposing impression of powerful architectural capability, it takes one aback, especially when the stories that surround its historical, violent past become one with its structure. Its sweeping lines from the lowest story the Doric order, then the Ionic, Corinthian and finally the Composite makes for a good metaphor for this metropolis -- a medley -- which borrows from one place and becomes planted in another. Layer upon layer of time, like a stolen heart, that finds a new place to rest, where the sentimental is never forgotten.

- Diane Epstein

"They who will," writes Charles Dickens of the Colosseum, "may have the whole great pile before them as it used to be, with thousands of eager faces staring down into the arena. It is the most impressive, the most stately, the most solemn, grand, majestic, mournful sight conceivable."

"While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls, the world."

- Lord Byron