Fountain of Neptune, Renaissance fountain in Piazza Unità d'Italia, Messina, Italy
The Fountain of Neptune stands in Piazza Unità d'Italia: a wide circular basin with a stepped, rounded base rising to a rectangular tier carved with ten panels of dolphins, tridents and shells. At the corners, lion-headed basins catch water from pairs of masks. On the central plinth sit Scylla and Charybdis, four sea horses, four coats of arms and eight masks, with the bearded Neptune holding his trident aloft.
Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, a collaborator of Michelangelo, created this fountain in 1557 for the Messina Senate. The work was completed during a period when the city was one of the Mediterranean's major ports.
The fountain was probably devised with advice from the mathematician and abbot Francesco Maurolico. Neptune, rising as if from the water, holds Scylla and Charybdis chained at his feet, an allegory of the city's moral and physical strength overcoming adversity, and of good government.
The fountain sits in the center of the main square directly in front of the Palazzo della Prefettura, easily reached by public transport. The location makes it simple to explore the old city on foot, as most sites are within walking distance.
The fountain's octagonal basin rim carries an inscription with Montorsoli's own signature. The four shields on the pedestal bear the coats of arms of Messina, and the ten sculpted panels show dolphins entwined around tridents and shells. The original Neptune statue was moved after the 1908 earthquake and is now kept in the Regional Museum; the one on the fountain is Gregorio Zappalà's 1856 copy.
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