Description
The Quattro Fontane of Messina are Baroque marble fountains set against the corners of the buildings at the crossroads of Via I Settembre and Via Cardines, in the city center. Of the four originals, two are still in place; the other two are at the Regional Museum.
The crossroads was modeled on the Quattro Canti in Palermo: a theatrical intersection to celebrate, in the Spanish era, the importance of the city. The fountains were designed by the Roman architect Giacomo Calcagni, who intended them all to be identical.
The theme is the sea, a tribute to a city of ports and trade routes. Each fountain has sea horses on side brackets, dolphins, shells, tritons and in the center a large mask with puffed-out cheeks, blowing out the water.
At the top, an eagle with outspread wings rests on the Spanish imperial insignia, between the city's coats of arms; only one bears the arms of the House of Savoy instead.
They were carved at different times, almost eighty years apart. The first was sculpted by the Florentine Innocenzo Mangani and began to flow on Holy Saturday 1666. The second, the one with the Savoy coat of arms, was finished by Ignazio Buceti in 1717, in the years when Sicily was ruled by the House of Savoy.
The last two were completed by anonymous marble workers in 1742, for the centennial celebrations of the Madonna della Lettera. A Latin inscription recorded that these more recent fountains had been erected by the merchants' guild.
In 1854 the city council had the small basins at the foot of the fountains removed, because constant use by the citizens was damaging the sculptures. The 1908 earthquake damaged above all the two fountains of 1742.
Today Mangani's fountain and one of the two from 1742, reassembled in the 1930s, remain at the crossroads. Buceti's, with the Savoy arms, and the last one, reduced to fragments, were reassembled in 2003 on the entrance ramp of the Regional Museum.
Among the rubble of 1908, near one of the fountains, some thought they recognized the remains of a very ancient temple of Hercules. Tradition also placed here the house of the Roman Gaius Heius Pollio, who was said to have hosted Cicero there.
The crossroads was modeled on the Quattro Canti in Palermo: a theatrical intersection to celebrate, in the Spanish era, the importance of the city. The fountains were designed by the Roman architect Giacomo Calcagni, who intended them all to be identical.
The theme is the sea, a tribute to a city of ports and trade routes. Each fountain has sea horses on side brackets, dolphins, shells, tritons and in the center a large mask with puffed-out cheeks, blowing out the water.
At the top, an eagle with outspread wings rests on the Spanish imperial insignia, between the city's coats of arms; only one bears the arms of the House of Savoy instead.
They were carved at different times, almost eighty years apart. The first was sculpted by the Florentine Innocenzo Mangani and began to flow on Holy Saturday 1666. The second, the one with the Savoy coat of arms, was finished by Ignazio Buceti in 1717, in the years when Sicily was ruled by the House of Savoy.
The last two were completed by anonymous marble workers in 1742, for the centennial celebrations of the Madonna della Lettera. A Latin inscription recorded that these more recent fountains had been erected by the merchants' guild.
In 1854 the city council had the small basins at the foot of the fountains removed, because constant use by the citizens was damaging the sculptures. The 1908 earthquake damaged above all the two fountains of 1742.
Today Mangani's fountain and one of the two from 1742, reassembled in the 1930s, remain at the crossroads. Buceti's, with the Savoy arms, and the last one, reduced to fragments, were reassembled in 2003 on the entrance ramp of the Regional Museum.
Among the rubble of 1908, near one of the fountains, some thought they recognized the remains of a very ancient temple of Hercules. Tradition also placed here the house of the Roman Gaius Heius Pollio, who was said to have hosted Cicero there.