Designed by Jacopo della Porta, this little fountain has a square platform with inwardly curving corners which provides the base for a matching raised pool made of travertine. In the center of the fountain, water sprays from a basin set on top of quite an elegant chalice-shaped marble baluster, lightly decorated with festoons. On the outside of the travertine pool are no fewer than six coats-of-arms and two large masks at varying distances apart are which much worn and difficult to make out.
Piazza Campitelli
The Piazza Campitelli fountain has a charming fountain whose shape differentiates it from all the other fountains in Rome which people from all over come to look at.
Jacopo della Porta style when it came to designing irregularly shaped pools for his fountains, always combined convex and never concave curves with the straight lines. The architecture of the fountain in Piazza Campitelli did not conform to his usual style. The two big, worn masks that were part of the ornamentation in which the City Authorities took an interest, resembled however, the masks from Villa Borghese and the Pantheon.
A document dated April 15, 1589 revealed the decision to build the fountain already planned for the Chamberlain's corner in a nearby square. The square being referred to contained the residences of three powerful nobles who undertook to have the work done at their own expense and to the value of at least 300 scudi, so that the fountain would be in front of their own houses.
If familiar with Piazza Campitelli you will notice the odd position of this charming little fountain. The fountain is thrust onto a corner, well away from the church of Santa Maria, and especially from the two great townhouses alongside, that used to belong to the Capizucchi and Albertoni families, now known as Spinola families. These are evidently the houses of two of the three gentlemen who requested and obtained permission to erect the fountain in the center of the square in front of their properties, though they were renovated in the 18th century.
The fountain remained in the center until the beautiful church made by Carlo Rainaldi was enlarged and reopened in 1675. Innocent XI then ordered the transfer of the water fountain in Campitelli to be transferred to a more convenient place when it was found to be too close to the church’s façade which brought about complaints from priests at Santa Maria about the bustle and unrestrained chatter of servants, coachmen and others around the fountain. The more convenient place was the spot where it now stands, in serene isolation, overlooking the wide, peaceful Via del Mare, with the Capitoline Hill in the background.