FONTANA A FUSO

HISTORICAL NOTES AND DESCRIPTION

The spindle fountain located in Piazza Roma in Vitorchiano, in front of the base of the clock tower, was made entirely of peperino by artists from Viterbo between 1200 and 1300. It is reminiscent of Lombardism, and is so named for its particular shape , precisely “a spindle”, a characteristic found in the contemporary fountains built in the area, such as the Piano fountain in Viterbo, or the old fountain in Soriano nel Cimino. An inscription dated 1320 present at the bottom of the clock tower located behind the fountain, has a municipal ban engraved in Gothic characters which prohibits murderers and traitors from residing in the municipality. The plaque could be a direct indication of the existence of the municipal building as early as the early fourteenth century, or better still of the context and social function that covered the public fountain adjacent to the building. The message of the epigraph placed to protect the community, reveals the indirect social value of the fountain itself as early as the fourteenth century. The classic model of medieval civic and religious square, represented in the space of political-religious-administrative practices, in which the places of power and citizenship are in the first instance the town hall, the tower, the church, but also the public source, it also took shape in Vitorchiano with the name of Piazza Roma. The construction of a public source, a common feature of the construction of medieval squares in the Italy of the Municipalities between the 1000 and 1300 century, therefore corresponded to an urban community scenario in which the fountain also played an essential role within the square as place of sociality and collective recognition. Unfortunately, as far as we know about the fountain in Fuso, the lack of sources does not allow a definite historical reconstruction of the events that characterized it. In 2005, the Proloco di Vitorchiano provided a plaque with the indications of the fountain indicating the period of construction, affixed to the wall of the adjacent clock tower. The fountain is characterized by a circular basin with rectangular mirrors inside which there are trefoil arches. In the center of the basin, a column with a large-leaved capital rises, surmounted by a stone with four columns supported by trefoil arches with the emblems of the four Evangelists: the lion that identifies San Marco, the calf that identifies San Luca, the eagle which is the symbol of San Giovanni and finally the angel, the symbol of San Matteo, and from whose mouths the water gushes. The fountain ends with a truncated pyramid surmounted by an ogive flower and decorated with four heraldic coats of arms, one of which is the coat of arms of Rome with the acronym S.P.Q.R.