The sober and imposing beauty of the sculptured marble figures make it a true masterpiece both of sculpture and of architecture and as legend has it also of superstition.
It is said that if you throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain you will one day return to the Eternal City of Rome. Thousands of people turn their back to the fountain and throw loose change over their shoulder into the water everyday.
The Trevi fountain is at the ending part of the Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct constructed in 19 BC. It brings water all the way from the Salone Springs (approx 20km from Rome) and supplies the fountains in the historic center of Rome with water.
The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water’s arrival.
Today’s popular story states that those who toss in two coins are supposedly getting married, while those who throw in three are heading for a divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one’s right hand over one’s left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.
More than EUR1000 ($1700) a day is thought to be donated by the superstitious every day, and it is collected by an AIDS charity, so even if the legend is nonsense, the money does not go to waste.
Source: The Age
