The Fountain of the Barrel

Map

Fontana della Botticella

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The Fontana della Botticella (Fountain of the Barrel), which stands near the church of San Rocco, was commissioned by Pope Clement XIV (r. 1769-74). The fountain was fed with water from the Aqua Virgo, as the plaque proclaims. 

The fountain refers to the porters who unloaded and transported barrels of wine from the nearby Porto di Ripeta. The port was demolished at the end of the 19th century when the embankments along the river Tiber were built.  

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Old photograph (1865) of the Porto di Ripetta