Fontaine Wallace, Drinking fountain in the 20th arrondissement, Paris, France
The Fontaine Wallace is a cast iron drinking fountain in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, designed to provide free drinking water to anyone passing by on the street. It sits on the sidewalk with a small basin at the base to catch drips and a spout for drinking.
These fountains trace back to Richard Wallace, a British collector who lived in Paris and wanted to give the city free drinking water after the hardships of the 1870 war and the Commune. The first one went up in 1872 in the La Villette neighborhood, and Charles-Auguste Lebourg was the sculptor who gave them their recognizable shape.
The green color of Wallace fountains was chosen so they would blend in with the trees and parks around them, though some have been painted other colors like red or yellow in different parts of the city. The four female figures near the top of each fountain represent simplicity, kindness, sobriety, and charity, and they are easy to see up close.
The fountains in the 20th arrondissement are scattered across the neighborhood, including near Place Maurice Chevalier and on Rue des Envierges, which you can reach by climbing the stairs of Passage Piat through Belleville park. The water is generally safe to drink, but it is worth checking any signs posted on the fountain, as some are occasionally marked as non-potable.
Each fountain originally had a tin cup attached by a chain so passersby could drink directly from it. Those cups were removed in the 1950s for hygiene reasons, and since then people drink straight from the spout.
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