Fontana di Bellerofonte

Avellino's Bellerophon Fountain turns a public water source into a Baroque architectural composition. Commissioned from Cosimo Fanzago in 1669, it is also known as the fountain of the three spouts, or Fontana dei Tre Cannoli.

Why it matters

Prince Francesco Marino Caracciolo's commission transformed an earlier watering trough into a monument of princely patronage. Water supply, heraldry and mythological imagery shared the same public setting, making an everyday structure part of the Caracciolo reshaping of the city.

What to notice

The composition has a central section and two lateral wings, with semicolumns and tiers of niches. Marble figures and busts give the architectural framework a sculptural rhythm. The ancient-looking busts have been associated, tentatively, with material from Roman Abellinum.

The three spouts explain the popular name. Inscriptions record the seventeenth-century commission and an intervention in 1866. The figure of Bellerophon fighting the Chimera, which gave the fountain its mythological identity, was stolen after the 1980 earthquake.

Context and history

The fountain belongs to Fanzago's work for the Caracciolo in seventeenth-century Avellino. The municipal restoration of 1866 altered its relationship with the street level. Later losses and the safeguarding of original sculptures became further chapters in its conservation history; Villa Amendola's civic museum preserves sculptures associated with the monument.