The fountain and the facade

Their two works stand twenty metres apart here, and that gave Rome its finest untrue story.

The Fountain of the Four Rivers is by Bernini, from 1651. Four men carved in marble stand for rivers from four continents, and they sit on a rock that is hollowed out underneath, so the obelisk above seems to rest on nothing. Bernini got the commission by a roundabout route. He had fallen out of favour with the pope, so he had a silver model of his design placed at a dinner that Innocent X would pass by. The pope saw it and handed him the job.

Behind it stands the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, whose facade was designed by Borromini. He pulled the centre inward so the dome stays visible from the square, something a flat facade could never manage.

The story goes that the figure with the covered eyes raises his hand in fear that the church will fall on him, and that Saint Agnes on the facade turns her head away from the fountain. Nicely imagined, and impossible, because the fountain had stood there for years before Borromini even started on the facade.

The figure with the covered head is the Nile, and his head is covered because nobody at the time knew where that river had its source. The square itself has its own story in the walk past the icons of Rome.

We take the exit on the north side of the square and carry on until we reach the river.