Fontana del Nettuno
Baroque marble fountain of the sea god riding a rock among nymphs and satyrs, once looted by a departing governor.
Location
About this audio guide
Fontana del Nettuno in Naples's Piazza Municipio still shows bare stone where a marble cherub once sat, cut away by the departing Spanish viceroy Pedro Antonio de Aragón before he sailed home in 1672. The guide traces the fountain's earlier damage during Masaniello's 1647 uprising against Spanish taxes, when rioters battered Michelangelo Naccherino's Neptune and Pietro Bernini's sea monsters. It follows the fountain's decades of exile through the city, nicknamed the dancing fountain as it was shifted from the harbor arsenal to a grotto at Pizzofalcone and beyond. Run your hand along its base to feel where that missing piece was cut away.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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