The Barcaccia (Sunken Boat)
fountain, the 17th-century Bernini masterpiece attacked and
damaged by Dutch soccer fans, just recently was unveiled after a
lengthy restoration and clean-up.
The baroque gem nestling at the foot of the Spanish Steps,
is the centrepiece of the Piazza di Spagna that was declared a
pedestrian precinct on August 4.
The work is the first example of a fountain conceived
entirely as a work of sculpture departing radically in geometric
form from the classical basin.
According to popular legend the Barcaccia owes its name to
a boat that was washed onto the square after the river Tiber
burst its banks in 1598.
The fresh-water fountain was commissioned in 1627 by Pope
Urban VIII, who wanted it at the foot of the escarpment on which
the Trinita dei' Monti Church was built before the now famous
staircase was constructed.
The sculpture was completed in 1627 after work not only by
Pietro, who died in 1629, but also by his more famous son Gian
Lorenzo Bernini.
The fountain is in the shape of a half-sunken ship with
water overflowing its bows into a basin below into which water
flows also from fake cannon ports on the exterior bows and prow
of the vessel.
The Barcaccia is decorated with papal coats of arms
dominated by bees, the heraldic symbol of the Barberini family.
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