Fontana delle Tartarughe
Late Renaissance fountain of bronze youths and tortoises in the Jewish Ghetto's quietest piazza.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Fontana delle Tartarughe in Rome's Jewish Ghetto opens with a legend about Muzio Mattei, a nobleman whose family name fills this square and whose reputation had been hollowed out at the gambling table. It follows the elaborate trick he is said to have pulled to win over a skeptical future father-in-law, and the real designer, Giacomo della Porta, and sculptor Taddeo Landini behind the bronze youths and dolphins. The turtles came later, during a restoration for Pope Alexander VII, and who actually added them is still an open question worth pausing over.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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