The Fountain of the Dioscuri (Fontana dei Dioscuri, 1818), in Piazza del Quirinale, was commissioned by Pope Pius VII (r. 1800-23) and designed by the Roman architect Raffaele Stern (1774-1820), using an ancient granite basin. The statues of Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri) were unearthed in the remains of the Baths of Constantine, which once occupied the site of Palazzo del Quirinale. The obelisk, one of a pair, once stood outside the entrance to the Mausoleum of Augustus. Comments are closed.
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My name is David Lown and I am an art historian from Cambridge, England. Since 2001 I have lived in Italy, where I run private walking tours of Rome.
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November 2023
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