The oldest fountain

The water has been running here since far back in the Middle Ages, and possibly since the eighth century, which puts this fountain among the oldest in Rome still working.

It has been reworked many times along the way. In the sixteenth century it moved to its present spot on the axis of the church, and at the end of the seventeenth century Carlo Fontana gave it the shape with the four shells you're looking at now.

The water comes from the Acqua Paola, the aqueduct that Pope Paul V had restored in 1612, which runs down here from the Gianicolo, the hill you can see rising above the rooftops. At the top stands the grand fountain building that Romans simply call the big fountain, and if you fancy the climb you'll find one of the best views in the city.

The steps around it are nearly always full of people, and that has been the role of this square for centuries.

In the southwest corner of the square Via di San Cosimato begins, and we follow it to the next square, the one with the trees.