Wednesday, January 20, 2010

fontana dei cavalli marini








Circles and sea horses







How many fountains are there in Rome? A million dollar-question. No other city in the world, I believe, can compete in number of fountains with the Eternal City. Percy Bysshe Shelley–(1792–1822) English poet, and leading figure of the romantic movement famed for his radical political views–observed that, "The fountains alone justify a journey to Rome."
Water and the myriad fountains from which it spills are part of Rome's artistic and cultural heritage and have always been one of the city's prominent characteristics.

The Fontana dei Cavalli Marini, 'fountain of the sea horses,' was designed in 1791 by Cristoforo Unterberger, some say built by Luigi Salimei, others by Vincenzo Pacetti.
It stands in the middle of a round plaza, surrounded by trees and a pedestrian walkway at the Via Pinciana main entrance of Villa Borghese.

My son likes to throw pebbles in the fountain's wide basin, and watch the sun play with the circular ripples in the water.















For more Watery Wednesday images from around the world, click here.







11 comments:

  1. Beautiful shots of a lovely fountain! My grandson always asks me for coins to throw into the water.

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  2. Lovely, lovely water. This must be what Respighi had in mind when he wrote the "Fountains of Rome". He also wrote "Pines in Rome" although I don't remember seeing any large number of pine trees when I visited. Did I miss them?

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  3. Lois~ Coins? How romantic... we go with pebbles.
    Chuck~ I have a Respighi post ready for another fountain... stay tuned. As far as pines, Rome is virtually filled with umbrella pines, hence the musical composition. Did you see my pine tree post? check it out: The trees of Roma

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  4. Mi piacciono molto le fontane in genere, questa รจ davvero bella, i cavalli sono grandiosi!

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  5. The horses look so realistic one could almost imagine them breaking free and galloping away.

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  6. Awesome water and fountain photo.

    Paz

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  7. Fabulous fountain. One of the most elaborate I have seen. Brilliant.
    Sydney - City and Suburbs

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  8. My my, i love fountains...I wonder how long it will take me to visit all of them, LOL.

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  9. It's beautiful! It reminds me a little of a fountain we have here at the Huntington Gardens, but when I photographed it on a cloudy it was dry. They had shut it down to clean it, I think. http://pasadenadailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/04/huntington-cool.html

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  10. Bellissime fotografie!

    I own a beautiful book about Roman fountains, published by the Roman piublisher "L'Erma" di Bretschneider in 2002:
    Marvin Pulvers, "Roman Fountains.
    2000 Fountains in Rome. A Complete Collection."

    Can't wait to visit Rome and see the fountains again.


    http://www.lerma.it/D_Scheda.asp?ID=2946

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