Robba Fountain, Baroque fountain at Mestni trg square, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The Robba Fountain features three male figures holding jugs that represent river gods, set within a shell-shaped basin. The entire composition sits on a layered base at the center of Town Square, combining marble and limestone in its construction.

Italian sculptor Francesco Robba created this fountain in the mid-1700s, drawing ideas from Baroque fountains he had seen in Rome. The original marble work was eventually moved to a museum for protection, while a careful copy now stands on the square.

The three figures were only later identified as the river gods of the Sava, Krka and Ljubljanica, and still later as the three territorial units of Carniola. After Slovenia's independence, Rudi Španzel portrayed the fountain on the 5,000 tolar banknote, in use from 1993 until the euro in 2007.

The fountain stands on Town Square directly in front of the Town Hall, at the meeting point of three streets, so it can be approached and circled from three sides. The stepped base and polygonal steps around the basin are raised, and the 10-metre obelisk is best seen from a few steps back. The original is displayed at the entrance to the newer wing of the National Gallery of Slovenia.

The Carrara marble figures were carved from blocks shipped from Venice; when a later marble shipment sank near Trieste, Robba finished the rest in local Lesno Brdo stone. Hauling the obelisk alone from the quarry to Ljubljana took nearly thirteen days and up to twenty pairs of oxen.