Fontana del Lantro, Zierbrunnen in Italien

Fontana del Lantro is a fountain in the basement of the Church of San Lorenzo on Via Boccola in Bergamo's Città Alta, near Porta Garibaldi. It has two basins: a smaller raised one and a main square-based one holding 400 cubic metres. Built of exposed squared stone, it has a central column supporting round and pointed arches.

The fountain is first documented in 928, in a parchment drawn up for Bishop Adalberto, with further mentions in 1032 and 1042; Bergamo's 1248 statute lists its cistern, tunnels, troughs and washbasins. In the second half of the 16th century the Venetian walls' construction led to the nearby church of San Lorenzo being rebuilt directly above the cistern, placing the fountain in a basement hall. A civic aqueduct replaced it at the end of the 19th century, and it was used as a washhouse until the 1950s.

The name Lantro comes from the spring that rises in a cavity beneath the church of San Lorenzo. In the Middle Ages the fountain supplied the whole Vicinia di San Lorenzo: water was drawn for households, used as an animal trough and for tanning hides. The 1248 city statute records its cistern, tunnels, troughs and washbasins.

The fountain sits in a basement room of the Church of San Lorenzo in Città Alta, on Via Boccola near Porta Garibaldi. It opens to the public only for special events or extraordinary openings, so check with the tourist offices in Città Alta (Via Gombito 13) or Città Bassa (Piazza Marconi) before going.

The Lantro spring rises from a cavity directly beneath the church of San Lorenzo and gave the fountain its name; the San Francesco spring was found and tapped only later, during construction of the Venetian walls. The 1248 city statute already lists the fountain's cistern, tunnels, drinking troughs and washbasins.