Fontana De Torres

Brindisi's Fontana De Torres, built in 1618 on what is now Piazza della Vittoria, commemorates an effort to address the city's need for drinking water. Of the three fountains commissioned by Spanish governor Pedro Aloysio de Torres, this is the best-known survivor; its marble basins incorporate carved pieces of Roman columns.

Why it matters

The fountain records a public-works initiative under Spanish rule. De Torres arranged for three fountains across the town, with contributions from the city's wealthiest citizens. The fountain in today's Piazza della Vittoria was the most important of them and remains a distinctive monument to the infrastructure that supplied early modern Brindisi.

What to notice

The large marble basin is assembled from carved pieces of Roman columns, given a second life as urban furniture. Water flows from a smaller upper basin into the lower one. The Latin inscription on the upper basin honours Governor De Torres, King Philip III of Spain and Pedro Téllez-Girón y Guzmán, viceroy of Naples. A second inscription was added in 1792, and the central stem retains traces of the arms of Philip III.

Context and history

The three fountains commissioned by De Torres stood at Via Conserva, near the port and in the square then used as the market, now Piazza della Vittoria. Their water came through a conduit added to the city's Roman-era waterworks. Repairs were carried out in the eighteenth century. A proposal to demolish the surviving fountain in 1922 to make way for a war memorial was defeated after intervention by local priest Don Pasquale Camassa, and the fountain remained in the square.