(ANSA) Rome, September 19 - Bernini's Barcaccia (Sunken Boat) fountain nestling at the foot the Spanish Steps will be unveiled Monday after a lengthy restoration, the mayor's office said Friday.
The Baroque fresh-water fountain in the Piazza di Spagna in the shape of a half-sunken ship with water overflowing its bows was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII and was completed in 1627 by Pietro Bernini and his son, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Mayor Ignazio Marino, a known art lover who has been raising billions abroad to fund costly restorations in and around Rome, will preside as the fountain - whose gentle splashing famously soothed Romantic poet John Keats as he lay in his deathbed in his home at the foot of the Spanish Steps - is returned to Romans and tourists alike.
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