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Fountain of the Dioscuri at the Quirinal: the story of the marble giants who travelled through time
One of the most spectacular fountains in Rome, the Fountain of the Dioscuri, stands in the centre of Piazza del Quirinale. The impact is immediate, with two colossal statues of the twins Castor and Pollux taming their horses. The current layout, however, is merely the latest chapter in a centuries-long story of continual relocations — a detail worth knowing in order to see Rome in a different light.
A contested origin
The origin of the statues is debated. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that they came from the Temple of Serapis, commissioned by Emperor Caracalla, before being moved to the nearby Baths of Constantine. Their sheer scale saved them from destruction, and gave the hill its medieval name: "Monte Cavallo" (Mount Horse). It was Pope Sixtus V, at the end of the 16th century, who first transformed them into a true fountain.
Final potioning and a celebrated witticism
Their present-day appearance dates from a major building campaign at the end of the 18th century. Architect Carlo Antinori, at the behest of Pope Pius VI, separated the Dioscuri twins and placed at the centre the obelisk recovered from the Mausoleum of Augustus, along with a new, enormous granite basin brought from the Roman Forum. Work proceeded so slowly that the talking statue of Pasquino made a joke of the architect's surname, whose anagram sounded like "Non tirai" — meaning "I didn't pull (my weight)".
The entire fountain complex was completed only in 1818 by architect Raffaele Stern. The fountain is located in Piazza del Quirinale, and is freely accessible at any time of the day.
