The Fountains of Rome

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The Fountain:
​Venice Marries the Sea

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Map

The Fountain of 'Venice Marries the Sea'

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With its fountain and clusters of palm trees, the grand courtyard of the Palazzo Venezia is a veritable oasis of peace and tranquillity in the heart of Rome. 

Venice Marries the Sea by Carlo Monaldi

The fountain (1730) of Venezia Sposa il Mare (Venice Marries the Sea) is the work of the Roman sculptor Carlo Monaldi (c.1683-c.1760). Venice takes the form of a young woman, who holds, betwixt thumb and forefinger, the ring with which she will wed the sea. The winged lion of St Mark, the symbol of La Serenissima, crouches obediently at her feet. 

For hundreds of years, on the Feast of the Ascension, the Most Serene Republic celebrated its special relationship with the sea in a ceremony known as Lo Sposalizio del Mare (The Marriage of the Sea). 

The doge and his entourage would be rowed out to the mouth of the Adriatic in the Bucintoro, a splendidly ornate and gilded ceremonial barge, followed by a flotilla of assorted boats. The supreme Head of State would then throw a gold ring into the water, proclaiming, 'Desponsamus te, mare. In signum veri perpetuique dominii' (We espouse thee, O sea, as a sign of true and perpetual dominion).

The ceremony came to an end at the end of the 18th century with the fall of the Republic, but was revived, albeit in a somewhat watered down form (no pun intended), in the 1960s.​

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