Description
The Fontana della Pigna is an 18th-century white marble fountain in Largo Seguenza, beside Viale Boccetta, in Messina. It takes its name from the large pine cone that crowns it, and it is one of the historic fountains that survived the 1908 earthquake.
It rises on two large steps with a curving profile that follows the shape of the basin. In the centre, four fluted volutes support a first bowl; above it, a smaller bowl is decorated with four shells and four grotesque masks from which the water flows. At the top, beneath the pine cone, are four more small masks.
It was carved by Messina craftsmen and originally stood, perhaps, in the courtyard of the archbishop's seminary. After the 1908 earthquake it was placed in the middle of Viale Boccetta, until in 1988, to make room for traffic, it was moved to the nearby square.
It rises on two large steps with a curving profile that follows the shape of the basin. In the centre, four fluted volutes support a first bowl; above it, a smaller bowl is decorated with four shells and four grotesque masks from which the water flows. At the top, beneath the pine cone, are four more small masks.
It was carved by Messina craftsmen and originally stood, perhaps, in the courtyard of the archbishop's seminary. After the 1908 earthquake it was placed in the middle of Viale Boccetta, until in 1988, to make room for traffic, it was moved to the nearby square.