Fountain of the Acqua Felice (Fountain of Moses)
The monumental outlet of Sixtus V’s aqueduct, crowned by a statue of Moses that Rome has never quite forgiven.
At a glance
The Fountain of the Acqua Felice closes one side of Piazza San Bernardo like a triumphal arch turned to the service of water. Built for Pope Sixtus V in the 1580s, it marks the end of the aqueduct that carried his name back to the hills of Rome.
History
Elected in 1585, Pope Sixtus V — born Felice Peretti — set out to bring water back to the higher, drier quarters of Rome. He restored an aqueduct and named it the Acqua Felice after himself. Its monumental outlet, this fountain, was built between 1585 and 1588 to a design by Domenico Fontana, the pope’s favourite architect.
What you see
The fountain takes the form of a three-bay triumphal arch. At its centre stands a colossal Moses striking water from the rock, carved by Leonardo Sormani and Prospero Antichi. The statue was ridiculed almost as soon as it was unveiled — too heavy, too awkward beside Michelangelo’s Moses across the city — and the criticism has followed it ever since. In the side bays, reliefs show Aaron and Gideon leading their people to water. Lions pour water into the basin below.
Significance
The fountain is one of the great mostre, the display-ends of Rome’s restored aqueducts, that let a Renaissance pope write his name across the city in stone and water. However its Moses is judged, the fountain did what it was built to do: it announced that water, and power, had returned to this hill.
Practical information
- Open at all times; the piazza is public
- A few minutes on foot from the Quirinal, Piazza della Repubblica and the Baths of Diocletian
- Best seen in the morning light that falls on the arch
Getting there
Piazza San Bernardo lies between Via XX Settembre and Piazza della Repubblica. The nearest Metro station is Repubblica (Line A), about five minutes on foot; Termini station is a ten-minute walk.
Gallery
Piazza San Bernardo, photographed by Luigi De Marchi.
Sources
- Turismo Roma — Roma Capitale (turismoroma.it)
- Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali (sovraintendenzaroma.it)
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