Fontana delle Tartarughe: The Legend of the Turtle Fountain

Why is it significant?

Step into the quiet, aristocratic jewel of Piazza Mattei and pause before the Fontana delle Tartarughe, the Turtle Fountain.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Step into the quiet, aristocratic jewel of Piazza Mattei and pause before the Fontana delle Tartarughe, the Turtle Fountain. Four slender bronze youths perch gracefully atop polished African marble dolphins, each raising an arm to help a tiny bronze tortoise climb over the rim into the overflowing upper marble water bowl in a dance of effortless Renaissance elegance.

Local romantic legend claims that Duke Muzio Mattei, having lost his entire family fortune in a single night of reckless gambling, was told by his prospective father-in-law that the marriage to his wealthy daughter was cancelled. To prove his aristocratic power, the duke had this entire fountain constructed outside his palazzo in a single night, summoned the bride and father the next morning, and then walled up the palace window forever.

While the fountain was actually designed by Giacomo della Porta in fifteen eighty-one, the four charming tortoises were added almost a century later during restorations by the great Baroque master Gian Lorenzo Bernini; they were so beloved that thieves repeatedly stole them until modern casts replaced the originals.

Walk eastward through the medieval portico alleys toward the grand curved masonry of the ancient Roman theater.