Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino Fountain, heritage site in Bucharest, Romania
The Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino Fountain is a stone monument built in 1870 and located on a small rise called Filaret within Carol I Park in Sector 4. It features rough stone blocks at its base, decorative reliefs on the front and sides, and heraldic tiles at the four corner pillars displaying medieval coat of arms designs.
The monument was built in 1870 at the initiative of Mayor Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, whose name it bears, replacing an earlier 18th-century fountain commissioned by Metropolitan Filaret II that had deteriorated over time. Architect Alexandru Freiwald and sculptor Karl Storck designed this simpler yet artfully crafted replacement on the same hillside location.
The fountain bears the name of Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, a former mayor whose contribution to the city is commemorated by this stone monument. Today it serves as a gathering point where locals and visitors pause to admire the carved details or sit quietly in the park.
The fountain is centrally located within Carol I Park and easily accessible, though the water is no longer potable and serves purely as a monument. The surrounding parkland is open to visitors and includes benches nearby where people can sit and take in the setting.
Before the current structure, a more elaborate 18th-century fountain with twelve bronze water spouts decorated with zodiac signs once stood at this location. That earlier construction had deteriorated so severely that after several restoration attempts it was eventually demolished and replaced by the simpler monument that exists today.
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