The Barcaccia fountain is situated in Among the most popular parts of Rome – it stands at The underside in the Spanish Measures – regarded on the Italians as La Scalinata. These measures had been built to attach the Piazza di Spagna While using the Trinita de’ Monti church.
The title – La Barcaccia – was provided to the fountain due to its structure. In Italian Barcaccia interprets in to English as useless boat. In the event you at any time see this fountain Then you certainly’ll comprehend where by the name arrived from! This fountain is basically made as a ship which can be sinking less than the weight with the incoming water.
It is believed by some this design was a depiction of a boat which delivered up at The situation from the Spanish Techniques during Rome’s fantastic flood of 1598. This principle cannot be established and some individuals do believe that it not likely as other fountains of the same style and design do exist in other places which suggests a unique this means for the look in general. Another theory here would be that the fountain of La Barcaccia was constructed to sit low down on the bottom if you want not to get in the way of folks’s view of your Spanish Ways – however, as the Spanish Ways weren’t crafted until eventually Just about a century or so immediately after this fountain’s building then we can properly disprove this principle in any scenario.
The La Barcaccia fountain was made by Pietro Bernini – actually it absolutely was to stand as the final undertaking he completed. He was commissioned to build the fountain by Pope Urban VIII as Element of a task to bring a drinking water resource through the Trevi Water on the Pincian Hill exactly read more where the Spanish Techniques now stand. In the event you think about the boat’s stern and prow you will see a carving on the arms of the Barberinis – it had been to this spouse and children that Pope Urban VIII belonged. Pope Urban VIII seems to are especially pleased with this fountain and its options – notably when it arrived towards the cannon that also stand for the finishes of the boat.
For those who go to La Barcaccia you may properly however see locals using the stones at either finish in the fountain to reach the water for any drink. From a romantic perspective this quaint fountain was also most likely the only thing that Keats would've been able to see from his lodgings when he lived (and died) in Rome.