The Turtle Fountain

The Turtle Fountain (Fontana delle Tartarughe) is not the largest and not the most well-known fountain in Rome. But it can be regarded as unique and rather beautiful. Besides, there’s an interesting story connected with it.

According to the legend, a Duke, a member of the Mattei family who was the owner of the fountain and the house in front of it was ruined by gambling before his wedding. His future father-in-law was angry and decided to cancel the wedding.

The Turtle Fountain (Fontana delle Tartarughe)

His “son-in-law” built that fountain overnight and the next morning invited all relatives to his place. When they saw the amazing fountain they were so impressed that the Duke was immediately absolved from all blame. After that the second floor window overlooking the fountain was closed up in order to prevent other people from enjoying its beauty from the same point.

There may be a scientific rationale for the legend. The fountain was designed by the architect Giacomo della Porta and created by the sculptor Taddeo Landini over a period between 1580 and 1588. It might stand in another place but the young man just placed it in front of his window.

Details on the Turtle Fountain

You may believe the legend or not but the fountain is really amazing and is worth seeing.

We continued our first day walk and went from the Turtle Fountain to Campo de Fiori Square. Not far from Campo de Fiori there is another quite big square called Piazza Farnese. It’s rather big but cosy with “home-like” atmosphere. Then we made our way to Torre Argentina Square and then to the Il Gesù Church where our first walk the first day in Rome ended.

We have lots of wonderful memories of that day and lots of photos taken in Rome. In the evening after a short rest at the hotel we went to see the Trevi Fountain under night illumination.

Next morning the pre-booked tickets to Vatican were already waiting for us.