Residenzplatz

This guide to Residenzplatz in Salzburg opens at the biggest baroque fountain outside Italy, commissioned in the 1650s by an archbishop determined to out-splash Rome and carved by the Italian sculptor Tommaso di Garona with engineer Antonio Dario using marble hauled down from the Untersberg. It follows the fountain's shaky start as plumbing, including a failed water supply from Furstenbrunn and a 1692 fix that borrowed water from Hellbrunn Palace's trick-fountain gardens up the valley. Look closely at the horses and dolphins rearing from the rock face, carved for a ruler chasing a Roman reputation.