Fontana del Nettuno

The sixteenth-century public fountains in Italy were not constructed in Florence but in other towns, above all at Messina, and the Messina fountains served as a stimulus for the fountain in Florence, not surprisingly because their sculptor was a Florentine, Montorsoli.

Montorsoli’s second outstanding work in Messina, after the Fountain of Orion (1550-50) is the marble Fountain of Neptune (1553-57) at the harbour. This consists of a colossal statue of Neptune on a high socle above a basin from which rise the fettered Scylla and Charybdis, the sea monsters of the Straits of Messina. Once again his work introduced a new fountain type, that with a single central figure.

At first, the fountain was placed near the harbour; in 1934 - after a series of damages resulted in the replacement of the original statues with replicas - the fountain was moved to the present place.