The Fountain of the Four Rivers, 1651

The Fountain of the Four Rivers was conceived and shaped by Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1648 and 1651 on commission from Pope Innocenzo X.

It is located in the center of Piazza Navona, in front of the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone by Francesco Borromini (built after the fountain), and is one of the greatest masterpieces by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the Italian Baroque.

Rivers are represented as follows:
– the Nile with a lion and a palm tree to symbolize Africa and with blindfolded eyes to indicate that its sources were not yet known
– the Rio della Plata, with silver coins that symbolize the Argentine color of the waters (from the Spanish plata = silver).
– the Danube with a horse and flowers that recall the fertile Danubian plains
– the Ganges with a long oar to indicate the navigability of the river.
The obelisk comes from the ancient Circus of Maxentius.

The fountain is oriented not according to the four cardinal points, but according to the four major intermediate directions, north-west, north-east, south-west, south-east.
Very evidently it symbolizes the four continents, the four parts of the then known world, given that each river that composes it flows in a different land.

On June 14, 1651 the Fountain of the Four Rivers was completed and shown in all its beauty to an ecstatic Innocent X who, in the company of the secretary of state, admires the work for a long time, dwelling, as the chronicles tell, on the myriad of details that make it truly unique.

But the maximum of amazement reaches the Pope when, at a predetermined signal, the water begins to flow and then beauty becomes wonder, according to the typical Baroque canons.