Its original location was on the corner of Palazzo Soderini, between Piazza Barberini and Via Sistina. In one of the rooms on the ground floor of the building, Bernini had in fact designed a “booty” for water, that is, a system to collect the return water from the Triton fountain, which he had designed a few months earlier on commission from Pope Urban VIII Barberini (1623-1644).
The artist’s imagination, however, gave a service structure the unusual shape of an open bivalve shell. The lower valve served as a basin, while the other valve, modeled to adhere to the corner of the building behind, was decorated at the base with three bees (heraldic symbol of the Pope’s family). An inscription recalled the pope’s intervention for the construction of the fountain and the fountain as a “public ornament of the city”.
The fountain was dismantled in 1865 for traffic reasons and deposited in the municipal warehouses. Rebuilt between 1915 and 1916, it was located at the corner of the square towards Via Vittorio Veneto, in an isolated position. Fragments of the central bee and the portion of the valve on which it rests are the only original parts of the work.
The fountain was restored in 2000. In 2004 the head of a bee, which was lost following an act of vandalism, was replaced with a copy.
Why would vandals destroy objects placed in public places? Was there some sort of protest about the bee?
I don’t know why vandals choose to destroy things. It happens often in the UK, just because ‘they can’. Maybe it gives them a kick.
Bees and Manchester.
Let me call Sherlock to solve this crime.
Do you think a native Mancunian knocked the bee’s head off and took it home as souvenir?
No… Some of my ancestors are Mancunian, it is not the Mancunian way
Oh I thought it was Whitby?
I still have not been there yet!
Can you believe it?!
Went to Whitstable in Kent this summer.
Close enough, I guess.
I have ancesters from the Whitby area too. I think some are buried in the grave yard next to St Mary’s Church.
Well, though I’m allergic to bees, this is lovely!
As for the head theft, why would they take just the head? That was all they could do quickly? I’m LC, let’s solve this mystery lol.
Eagle, considering you’re MI6 undercover, Eagle, let’s use your connections, do you copy? Over and out ~ Falcon. (Just kidding, see my previous comment about spy photos and spy names lol).
And with that, I’ll stop bombarding your comments sections. It had been a minute since I’d have time to come give a proper look!
Someone probably climbed on the fountain and the clambering damaged the bee. So not so much stolen but damaged and removed from the crime scene?
Some people do odd things that cannot be accounted for.
Thanks for you visit and comments
What a lovely fountain. I am glad they replaced the bee – so awful that it was vandalised
It is a delightful fountain. I was glad to spot it on one of our walks.