Fountain of the Four Rivers Piazza Navona

One of the Italy-dwellers on Slow Travel said that the official website of the restoration authority said the fountain was expected to be re-opened in the early months of 2008. Of course, if it is on Italian Standard Operating Time as one commenter said, the early months could stretch into summer or more.

Charnee

Thanks for the link, Grinisa. Guess I missed that in the Trib this week. Not holding my breath, but hoping they might be done by next June. I'll be staying just a couple blocks away with the whole gang--daughter, mom, brother and wife, three nephews--so I expect we'll be spending most of our evenings in Piazza Navona.

We just got back from Rome, and yes, the Four Rivers fountain is still undergoing restoration. However, if you are looking for Bernini fountains, I recommend the Triton Fountain at Piazza Barberini. While you are at the Piazza, make sure to find the small but charming Fountain of the Bees as well, which is also by Bernini.

Hi ms_go! My gang will miss yours by three months. We're going over Easter break. Three nephews...good thing he sold the KarmannGhia!

Obviously the scaffolding doesn't give you the intended effect in Piazza Navona as a whole, but I actually found it interesting to look at the restoration. It is well signed so you can understand what the restorers are doing and there are windows in the wooden protective box (for lack of a better word) around the sculpture so you can see the parts that have been restored. At least that was the case when I was there two weeks ago. Interestingly, pigeon poop is a big culprit in the deterioration of the stone.

As of last spring the restoration was still continuing. Can anyone update the current status? Thanks.

What was weird was that last Christmas they had all of the boards and plastic down and it was running. In February, it was all boarded up again. I think they have been restoring this since at least 2007 or maybe 2006. I'm not sure that it took Bernini that long to make it.



dave

Not under any scaffolding any more.

Here's a photo from July 2010 - http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/image/127506572

And November 2010 - http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/image/131333234

But last February...
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/122283601

and....
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/122283865

Rather like painting the Forth Road Bridge - a project that's never really finished before it needs doing again... even if they do put the screens away at busy times such as Christmas, and let the restorers work on something indoors?

Mind you, just compare the state of the church doorway, in the background of these two...
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/122715130

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/127024786

Peter