Often in summer we hear about heat, water emergency and people who use monumental fountains as if they were public swimming pools. Apart from that, I take a cue from this to talk about one of the most famous and celebrated fountains in Rome: the so-called Fontanone! Celebrated by poets, the Fontanone is one of the symbols of the Eternal City, a monument that a local tour guide like me always tries to show his tourists. After all, from there you can also enjoy a crazy view of the city.
The official name is Fontana dell'Acqua Paola because of pope Paul V Borghese who, at the beginning of the 17th century, decided to restore and put back into operation the ancient Aqua Traiana, the aqueduct built by the roman emperor Trajan at the beginning of II century a.D. This grandiose architectural work took water from the Bracciano Lake (an awesome place, as you can read here), capturing it in order to provide the city with an additional water supply. And Paul V, also to copy a similar action (restoration of an ancient Roman aqueduct) carried out by pope Sixtus V a few years earlier, already in 1608 asked to architects such as Giovanni Fontana and Flaminio Ponzio to supervise the restoration work of this ancient aqueduct. The result was manifold, as the pontiff could boast the honor of having brought new water resources to the city, while at the same time obtaining even more water to irrigate the splendid Vatican gardens in which he stayed and loved to stroll.
Finally, to celebrate himself, a bit like the ancient Roman emperors and as a custom of the time, he ordered the construction of this fountain-exhibition, at the point where the aqueduct ends its run. Nothing strange if we think that the pope Sixtus V did excatly the same, commissioning a big fountain that became the symbol of the ancient roman aqueduct that he restored (read here to know more about it).
However to make the so called Fontanone precious marbles were used: marble slabs from the Forum of Nerva and some columns from the ancient St. Peter's Basilica, not yet inaugurated at the time of Paul V (the inauguration took place, in fact, in 1626). It's really a pity that everything was ruined by a trivial historical-archaeological error. In fact, in the large frontal inscription, in which the pope's name stands out, we note the words AQUAE ALSIETINAE, referring to the Alsietine aqueduct built by Augustus and starting from Martignano Lake. In the intention of the stonemason, and of those who commissioned the writing, there was the will to indicate the lake and the Roman aqueduct from which he took inspiration for the restoration work wanted by Paul V. dedicatory inscription was wrong... aqueduct and lake! A small mistake that, from a certain point of view, makes one of the most beautiful monuments of the Eternal City even more special ...