Spanish Steps & Fontana della Barcaccia: The Sinking Boat

Why is it significant?

Stand in the center of Piazza di Spagna right beside the sunken travertine basin of the Fontana della Barcaccia, the Fountain of the Ugly Boat.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stand in the center of Piazza di Spagna right beside the sunken travertine basin of the Fontana della Barcaccia, the Fountain of the Ugly Boat. Sculpted in sixteen twenty-nine by Pietro Bernini with the help of his brilliant son Gian Lorenzo, the fountain depicts a leaking, half-sunken barge overflowing with fresh water.

Why did Bernini sculpt a sunken boat? In fifteen ninety-eight, a historic flood of the Tiber River submerged Rome beneath twenty feet of muddy water. When the floodwaters receded, an actual wooden cargo boat was found stranded right here in the center of this piazza. Because water pressure from the Acqua Vergine aqueduct was very low at this spot, Bernini sank the fountain below street level so water could gently spill over the gunwales.

Gaze up at the magnificent grand sweep of the Spanish Steps: one hundred and thirty-five gleaming travertine steps designed by Francesco de Sanctis in seventeen twenty-five to connect the Spanish Embassy below with the French church of Trinità dei Monti above. English Romantic poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley lived in the house right beside the steps.

Walk north along the luxury boutiques of Via del Babuino toward Piazza del Popolo.