Fontaine Médicis: A Queen's Grotto in the Luxembourg
Why is it significant?
Walk along the long, dark pool under the plane trees until you face the fountain at its end, an Italian grotto of rough stone, half palace, half cave. Above the water, a huge bronze giant leans out of the rock, glaring down at a white marble couple lying in each other's arms.
Key Facts
| Place | Fontaine Médicis: A Queen's Grotto in the Luxembourg |
|---|---|
| Address | Jardin du Luxembourg, Rue de Médicis, 75006 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.84810, 2.33930 |
| Part of Walk | Ink, Coffee and Revolution: A Literary Walk Through Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk along the long, dark pool under the plane trees until you face the fountain at its end, an Italian grotto of rough stone, half palace, half cave. Above the water, a huge bronze giant leans out of the rock, glaring down at a white marble couple lying in each other's arms.
The giant is Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops. The lovers are the nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis. In the myth, Polyphemus loves Galatea, finds her with Acis, and crushes him with a boulder. So what you are watching is the second before the tragedy. The sculptures were added by Auguste Ottin in the 1860s, and the lovers have no idea what is about to fall on them.
The fountain itself is much older. It was built around 1630 for Marie de Médicis, widow of King Henri the Fourth, probably by the Florentine fountain-maker Tommaso Francini. Marie had grown up in the Pitti Palace in Florence and was homesick, so she asked for a palace and a garden that would remind her of home. The palace you can see through the trees, built from 1615, was the result.
She did not enjoy it for long. In November 1630, in a confrontation remembered as the Day of the Dupes, she tried to make her son, Louis the Thirteenth, dismiss Cardinal Richelieu. For a few hours everyone believed she had won. Then the king backed the cardinal. Marie went into exile and died in poverty in Cologne in 1642, far from her Florentine garden. The great cycle of paintings Rubens made for her palace now hangs in the Louvre.
And the fountain has moved. In the 1860s, when Haussmann cut the new Rue de Médicis, it was dismantled and rebuilt about thirty metres away, and the long pool was added. Today the palace is the French Senate. Follow the path toward the palace and come out onto the wide terrace in front of it, where children sail boats on the great pool.