Fontana Delle Tette, Marble fountain sculpture in Palazzo dei Trecento, Treviso, Italy.
Fontana Delle Tette is a marble sculpture fountain in Palazzo dei Trecento, Treviso, Italy, showing a female figure pressing her breasts. Water flows continuously from both nipples into a stone basin below.
Alvise Da Ponte, podestà of Treviso under the Venetian Republic, ordered the fountain built in 1559 after a severe drought struck the city and its countryside. It was first placed inside the Palazzo Pretorio on via Calmaggiore. From then until 1797, when the Venetian Republic fell, each new podestà was honoured with three days of free wine flowing from the fountain. It was later dismantled, recovered by abbot Luigi Bailo, and kept at Museo Casa da Noal.
From 1559 until 1797, whenever a new Podestà took office, the fountain ran for three days with wine instead of water: red from one breast and white from the other, free for all citizens. The name in Venetian, fontana de łe tete, means "fountain of the breasts".
The 1989 reconstruction stands in the courtyard of Palazzo Zignoli, accessible through the gallery off Calmaggiore. The fountain can be viewed during the regular opening hours of the palace.
The original 16th century sculpture now rests in the loggia beneath Palazzo dei Trecento. The daily functioning copy in the courtyard was installed to protect the aging marble.
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