Rome - December 28, 2011 - San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane: Built by Borromini in the middle of the 17th century wedged into a corner.

Complex curves and planes meet classical columns in an almost whimsical building with a hint of madness…gosh I love good architecture.

It is sad that, possibly from whatever in his mind inspired that whimsy, the architect committed suicide and was not buried in the little chapel here as he originally intended.

Inn the picture to the left you can actually see the fountain of Juno, and understand how these fountains interact with the buildings around them.

Rome - December 28, 2011 - Quattro Fontane

Diana Fountain

Juno Fountain

River Tiber Fountain

Just a couple of minutes northwest of the Piazza Viminale the road becomes the Via delle Quattro Fontane and soon one arrives at the Quattro Fontane.

The Quattro Fontane (“four fountains”) is a group of four fountains, (no really) set into the obliquely set into the walls of the buildings at the four corners of the intersection of Via Delle Quattro Fontane and Via del Quirinale.

Completed between 1588 (the year of the battle of Gravelines! Yay for the English!) and 1593. The fountains represent the goddesses Juno (jealous and vengeful wife of Jupiter), Diana, (goddess of the hunt, often associated with night, also jealous and vengeful), the river Tiber as an anthropomorphic personification and the river Arno also as an anthropomorphic personification. For some reason Juno and the Tiber are depicted chilaxin under some strange octopus-like trees that hang down in thick dreadlocked tendrils to the languid figures below.

River Arno Fountain