Fontaine du Soleil

This guide to the Fontaine du Soleil in Nice follows sculptor Alfred Janniot's marble Apollo from its scandalous 1956 unveiling on Place Massena, through the public outrage and the campaign a religious group waged against it, to Janniot's own decision to take a chisel to his work. It then traces how the statue and its five bronze planetary figures were dismantled and scattered across the city for decades. Look for the five bronze figures ringing the pool, once cast for Earth, Mars, Mercury, Saturn and Venus.