Fontana dei Fori Imperiali

The fountain consists of a granite pond with two side masks that rests on a support placed in the middle of a larger oval marble pond. The monument is enclosed within an apse-shaped niche in the wall that contains the Velia Hill, destroyed to make room for the new layout of Via dei Fori Imperiali, at that time called Via dell’Impero. The fountain is a work by the architect Antonio Muñoz, who is also responsible for all the works to make the new route of the road (1931-1932) that was required to serve as a connection between Piazza Venezia and the Southern part of the city with its new quarters. The granite pond of the Roman age comes from the excavations in Porto and was found in 1696. It was donated by pope Innocent the Twelfth Pignatelli (1691-1700) to the Curia Innocenziana that was situated in Palazzo Montecitorio, where it decorated the nymphaeum in the courtyard, work by Carlo Fontana. After being removed and deposited in the depots of the Municipality during the works to transform Palazzo Montecitorio into the residence of the new Parliament, it was inserted by Muñoz in his project for Via dei Fori Imperiali.