Formiello Fountain

Monumental fountain · 1573

The waters of the Sebeto at the gates of the city.

The Fontana del Formiello stands in Piazza Enrico De Nicola in Naples, behind Castel Capuano and close to Porta Capuana, where it strategically served as a resting place for travellers and citizens, as well as a drinking trough for animals. Its name comes from the Latin ad formis, meaning “towards the conduits”, a reference to the channels of the Bolla aqueduct that carried the waters of the river Sebeto into the city.

From the sixteenth century to the Viceroy Duke of Osuna

The monumental structure in lava stone dates from 1573, the year in which the Naples Water Tribunal commissioned Mastro Joseppe and Michel De Guido to replace a pre-existing medieval fountain that had fallen into disuse. In 1582 a first restoration was commissioned by the Viceroy Pedro Téllez-Girón, Duke of Osuna, following which, in 1583, the dedicatory inscription was set in place. It reads:

“Stop, traveller, to venerate the waters of the spring that father Sebeto irrigates with his river, under the reign of Philip. Here the chorus of the Aonides, here the wave of the river of Parnassus, here Melpomene offers you a gift from the spring. Parthenope, with the breeze of her gulf, hands down the memory of so great a king. Year 1583.”

An architecture on two levels

The architecture of the fountain is arranged on two levels: on the lower level is the basin, fed by the three lion masks from which the water flows; above the basin, at the centre of the first order of pilasters, is the viceroy’s inscription mentioned above. The pilasters are finely decorated with four medallions carved in bas-relief, with two male and two female faces, probably identifiable as the four seasons.

The upper level, which bears the viceroy’s coat of arms, ends in a broken pediment, at the centre of which the pedestal is still visible on which the Viceroy Don Pedro Antonio de Aragón had the statue of King Philip IV placed, later removed.

Dismantling and the reconstruction of 1930

At the end of the nineteenth century the fountain was dismantled and stored in the municipal depots, to be rebuilt in 1930 on the eastern side of Castel Capuano and enclosed by a protective railing, taking on the appearance it has today.

The maintenance and enhancement works

The new intervention involves extraordinary maintenance and enhancement works, including the removal of invasive vegetation, the elimination of the stains caused by water run-off, and the installation of a new lighting system designed to highlight the fountain at night.