TheFountains in Paris originally provided drinking water for city residents, and now are decorative features in the city's squares and parks. Paris has more than two hundred fountains, the oldest dating back to the 16th century. It also has more than one hundredWallace drinking fountains.[1] Most of the fountains are the property of themunicipality.
In 2017, an investigation by thecultural heritage magazineLa Tribune de l'art revealed that more than half of these fountains were not functioning.[2]
For the list of Paris fountains by arrondissement, SeeList of Paris fountains.
The history of fountains in Paris until the mid-19th century was the history of the city's struggle to provide clean drinking water to its growing population. The building of fountains also depended upon the law ofgravity; until the introduction of mechanical pumps, the source of the water had to be higher than the fountain for the water to flow.
In the third century BC, the original inhabitants, theParisii, took their water directly from the RiverSeine. By the first century BC, the Roman engineers of the town ofLutetia had built the aqueduct ofArcueil using gravity to provide water for their baths and for their public fountains.
In theMiddle Ages, the Roman aqueduct of Arcueil had fallen into ruins and residents once again took their water from the Seine or from wells. By the reign ofPhilip II of France (1180–1223), two large monasteries existed outside the city walls north of Paris; the Abbey of Saint-Laurent, at the foot ofMontmartre, and the Abbey of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. These monasteries received fresh water from two aqueducts; the Abbey of Saint Laurent by lead pipes coming from the heights of Romaineville and Menilmontant, and the Abbey of Saint-Martin-des-Champs by a masonry aqueduct coming from the summit of Belleville. In the first half of the 13th century, these two aqueducts were used to supply water to the first recorded fountains in medieval Paris, the Fontaine des Halles, theFontaine des Innocents, and the Fontaine de Maubuée.[3] These fountains did not gush water; water poured out continually in thin streams from bronze masquerons, masks, usually of animals, into stone basins so local residents could fill their vessels with water.
By 1498, when Louis XII of France became King, the water supply of Paris was controlled jointly by the merchants of the city, led by the Prévot des Marchands, and the king. They decided how water would be distributed and were responsible for building public fountains. The water supply of Paris was still very limited; by the end of the 15th century, there were only seventeen fountains providing water in Paris, including five outside the walls. All of the fountains were on the Right Bank; the two aqueducts supplied water, and, as the water table was close to the surface, and it was easy to dig wells there, while on the Left Bank the water table was deep underground and there were no working aqueducts so almost all water had to be carried from the Seine. As a result, the Left Bank had hardly grown since the time of Philip II.[4]
In the early 17th century, KingHenry IV of France decided to bring water to the Left Bank for the university and for the plannedLuxembourg Palace of his wife,Marie de' Medici. A new aqueduct was built between 1613 and 1623 to bring water fromRungis. This new aqueduct supplied six new fountains on the Left Bank, including the present-dayMedici Fountain, and one on the Right Bank. In addition, five new fountains were built on the right bank using the two original aqueducts. Henry's broughtTommaso Francini, a Florentine fountain maker, to Paris, where he designed theMedici Fountain in theJardin du Luxembourg. In 1636 he became the Intendant general des Eaux et Fontaines, in charge of all royal fountains and water projects. His descendants held this title until 1781.[5]
Another major contribution of Henry IV was the construction between 1578 and 1608 ofLa Samaritaine, an enormous hydraulic water pump, powered by a water wheel under the Pont Neuf, which lifted water up from the Seine to a reservoir near Saint-Germain-l'Auxerois, for use in theLouvre Palace and theTuileries Gardens. Two more pumps were added in 1673. Thanks to the pumps and the new aqueduct, by 1673 Paris, with an estimated population of 500,000 people, had 16 fountains on the Right bank fed by aqueducts, 14 fountains on the Left Bank fed by the new Aqueduct of Arcueil, and twenty one new fountains along the Right and Left banks of the river, fed by the new hydraulic pumps.[4]
Of the fountains built in the 16th and 17th century, all were either rebuilt or demolished in the following two centuries. Only a few, such as the Fontaine Boucherat, the Fontaine des Innocents and Medici Fountain, all extensively rebuilt, still preserve the character of their time.
The eighteenth century saw the construction of thirty new fountains, of which fourteen still survive, and the building of three châteaux d'eau, water reservoirs located inside large structures.[6] Many of these fountains were the work ofJean Beausire, who, by royal edict, was Contrôleur des bâtiments of the city of Paris between 1692 and 1740. His fountains were usually small, set against a wall, with a niche and a single spout pouring water into a small basin, but they were dignified and elegant, decorated with seashells, mythological figures, and sometimes had imitations of the calcified walls of grottos, imitating natural springs.
In the middle of the 18th centuryVoltaire and other critics began to demand more open squares and more ornamental fountains. InLes Embellisements de Paris, written in 1749, Voltaire wrote, "We have only two fountains in good taste, and they should certainly be better placed. All the others are worthy of a village."[7] The government responded to these demands for grander fountains by commissioning theFontaine des Quatre-Saisons (1739) and by an even grander project for a square with fountains, Place Louis XV, which became thePlace de la Concorde.[8]
Despite the new fountains, the city had problems supplying enough water to the growing population of the city. In 1776, a private water company, La Comagnie des Eaux de Paris, was started by two mechanical engineers,Jacques-Constantin and Augustin-Charles Périer. They promised to deliver water directly to anyone who could pay for it through a system of pipes directly to homes. They imitated the city of London and installed a steam-powered water pump atChaillot in 1782. The first pumps, built inBirmingham, England, and namedConstantine andAugustine, raised water from the Seine and filled four reservoirs near the hill of Chaillot, from which the water flowed downhill through iron pipes (also made in England) to their private subscribers, and also to seven new public fountains. In 1786, after the success of the first pumps, two new engines,Louise andThérèse, were added along thequai d'Orsay and the Gros Caillou, which, beginning in 1788, pumped water to a 35-metre-high (115 ft) tower, which flowed down through pipes to the neighborhoods of lesInvalides,Ecole Militaire, and the faubourgSaint-Germain.
The creation of the private water company created a bitter political struggle between those who supported the company, including the playwrightPierre Beaumarchais, the author of theMarriage of Figaro, who was one of the directors and became wealthy from the water company, and those who opposed it, including the guild of water-porters, whose jobs were threatened, led by theComte de Mirabeau. In 1788, after a financial crisis, the company went bankrupt and passed into the hands of the Royal Treasury, but its technical success was proven; of the eighty-five fountains in Paris in 1807, 45 were fed with water from the company's steam pumps.[9]
![Fontaine Palatine, Rue Garanciére, 6th arrondissement. Built by Princess Anne Henriette of Bavaria in 1715. When her house was torn down in 1913, the fountain was rebuilt on the same site.[10]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGaranci%25C3%25A8re04.JPG)
![Château d'eau de la Croix du Trahoir, corner of rue de l'Arbre Sec and Rue Sain-Honoré (1st arrondissement) On the site of a 17th-century fountain, rebuilt in its present form in 1775 by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, architect of the Panthéon, Paris.[11]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aFontaine_du_Trahoir_detail.jpg)
The building of monumental fountains was interrupted by theFrench Revolution; the Place Louis XV was renamed Place de la Revolution, and theguillotine was placed near where the fountains were to have been built. The supply of water and the building of fountains became a subject of prime concern for the new First Consul,Napoleon Bonaparte, beginning in 1799.[12]
Napoleon asked his Minister of the Interior,Jean-Antoine Chaptal, what would be the most useful thing he could do for Paris, and Chaptal replied, "Give it water.".[13] In 1802 Napoleon ordered the construction of the first canal bringing water from a river outside the city, the canal d'Ourcq. The canal was built by Napoleon's energetic Chief Engineer of Bridges and Highways and head of his service of water and sewers,Pierre Simon Girard, who had served with him on his campaign inEgypt. Girard's grand projects included theCanal Saint-Denis (finished in 1821), the Canal d'Ourcq (finished in 1822), the Canal Saint-Martin (finished in 1825) which brought enough water for both drinking fountains and decorative fountains.[14]
While his engineers were building canals to bring water to Paris, Napoleon turned his attention to the fountains. In a decree issued May 2, 1806, he announced that it was his wish "to do something grand and useful for Paris." and proposed building fifteen new fountains. He also ordered the cleaning, repair or rebuilding of the many old fountains which had fallen into ruin, such as theFontaine des Quatre-Saisons and theMedici Fountain. His engineers built new fountains in the city's major outdoor markets, and installed several hundredbornes-fontaines, simple stone blocks with a water tap, all over the city. In 1812, he issued a decree that the distribution of water from fountains would be free, and anyone who speculated in drinking water would be severely punished.[13]
Many of the fifteen monumental fountains built by Napoleon were designed by the same architect,François-Jean Bralle, chief engineer of the water service for the City of Paris, who had worked on the big water pumps at Chaillot, Gros-Caillau and la Samaritaine.
The early Napoleonic fountains, built before the canals were finished, were modest in scale and supplied with a limited amount of water, which poured through the traditional masquerons, or spouts. The later fountains by Napoleon, including the fountain in the Place de Vosges and the Chateau d'eau, were not used primarily for drinking water, and had water shooting into the air and cascading from the vasques into the basins below. These were the first truly decorative fountains in Paris.[15]
. *Fontaine du Palais des Arts (1809–1810). Four lions of cast iron, made by the sculptorAntoine Vaudoyer, were placed on separate pedestals in front of the Palais des Beaux-Arts, spouting water from their mouths into two basins. The fountain stopped working in 1865, and the lions were moved to the square ofBoulogne-Billancourt, where they can be seen today.
From the fall of Napoleon in 1815 to the coming to power ofLouis Philippe in 1830, as France went through theRestoration of the old monarchy, few new fountains were built, and they were of modest size and artistic ambitions. Between 1813 and 1819 a new market, the marché des Blancs-Manteaux, was constructed by the rue des Hospitaliers. The fountain in the meat market was adorned with bronze spouts in the shape of bull's heads by the sculptorEdme Gaulle. The market was demolished in 1910 but the heads still remain, now attached to the wall of an ecole maternelle.[21]
Place des Vosges (1830). The original fountain by Pierre Simon Girard in the Place des Vosges (renamedla place Royale during the Restoration) was replaced in 1830 by the current four fountains, designed by Jean-François-Julien Ménager, a student of Vaudoyer, winner of theprix de Rome, andarchitect of the City of Paris. The new fountains are made of volcanic stone fromVolvic in theAuvergne, and have two circular vasques one above the other, with lions' heads spouting water into the circular basin.
TheFontaine de Gaillon (1828) on the rue d'Antin (2nd arronidissement) was the first major fountain byLouis Visconti, which replaced an earlier fountain by Beausire. Visconti later became famous as the architect of the tomb of Napoleon in theInvalides. The fountain has two vasques, decorated with a youngtriton armed with a trident and a horse on a dolphin, and an inscription in Latin: "for the utility and ornament of the city."[22]
In July 1830 the absolute monarchy ofCharles X was overthrown and replaced by the constitutional monarchy ofLouis-Philippe. The new government, like earlier ones, faced the problem of a rapidly growing population in Paris, whose need for water was far greater than Napoleon's canal de l'Ourq could supply. Public fountains caused congestion in the narrow streets; carriage and wagon drivers watered their horses in the fountains; water porters fought with local residents for access to the water taps; the fountains in markets were used to wash vegetables and fruits and to clean the streets. A cholera epidemic in 1832 made it evident that Paris needed better water and better sanitation.[23]
The newPréfet of the Seine, Rambuteau, ordered the construction of two hundred kilometers of new water pipes and the installation of 1700 borne-fontaines, the simple blocks with water taps introduced by Napoleon. Thanks to these new fountains, which supplied drinking water to the population, the city's architects had the freedom to design new monumental fountains that were purely ornamental in the city's squares.
Fontaines de la Concorde. (1836–1840) The two fountains in thePlace de la Concorde are the most famous of the fountains built during the time of Louis-Philippe, and came to symbolize the fountains of Paris. They were designed byJacques-Ignace Hittorff, a student of the neoclassical sculptorCharles Percier at theÉcole des Beaux-Arts, who had served as the official Architect of Festivals and Ceremonies for the deposed King, and had spent two years studying the architecture and fountains of Italy.
Hittorff's two fountains are both on maritime themes, because of their proximity to the Ministry of Navy on the Place de la Concorde, and to the Seine. Their arrangement, on a north–south axis aligned with theobelisque ofLuxor, and the Rue Royale; and the form of the fountains themselves, were strongly influenced by the fountains of Rome, particularlyPiazza Navona and the square of St. Peters.
Both fountains have the same form: a stone basin; six figures oftritons ornaiades holding fish spouting water; six seated allegorical figures, their feet on the prows of ships, supporting the piedouche, or pedestal, of the circular vasque; four statues of different forms of genius, arts or crafts supporting the upper inverted upper vasque; whose water shoots up and then cascades down to the lower vasque and then the basin.
The north fountain is devoted to the Rivers, with allegorical figures representing theRhone and theRhine, the arts of the harvesting of flowers and fruits, harvesting and grape growing; and the geniuses of river navigation, industry, and agriculture.
The south fountain, closer to the Seine, represents the seas, with figures representing the Atlantic and the Mediterranean; harvesting coral; harvesting fish; collecting shellfish; collecting pearls; and the geniuses of astronomy, navigation and commerce.[24]
Fontaines des Champs-Élysées. (1839–1840). Having finished the fontaines de la Concorde, Hittorff built four additional fountains in the squares on the Champs-Élysées between the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe, which had just been finished in 1836. The lower part of each fountain is the same; a circular basin, a pedestal with seashell ornamentation; a vasque supported by dolphins and ornamented with palm leaves; and (on three of the four) lion heads spouting water.
The upper part of each fountain was different;
Carré des Ambassadeurs - a Venus brushing her hair, surrounded by roses and flowing water. (sculptor: Francique-Joseph Duret.)Carré le Doyen - statue of Diana with roses. (Sculptor: Louis Desprez)Fontaine de Cirque (north side): Four children, representing the four seasons, with a second vasque decorated with the heads of lions and wild boars. (Sculptor: Jean-Auguste Barre).Fontaine de l'Elysée (north side). A simple single vasque with cascading water.
TheFontaine Louvois (1839), by architectLouis Visconti, was built in the new Place Louvois, on the site of theold opera house. The lower vasque is decorated with signs of the zodiac and masks of the seasons; four female figures representing the riversSeine,Loire,Garonne andSaône surround the column supporting the upper vasque. The figures and vasques were made of cast iron, painted to look like bronze.
Fontaine Cuvier (1840–1846). Dedicated toGeorges Cuvier (1769–1832), the naturalist, pioneer ofpaleontology andcomparative anatomy. This fountain is located near theJardin des Plantes and the museum of natural history, where Cuvier had worked. The statue is placed against a wall, with a low basin, water pouring from the heads of reptiles, and a band of human and animal heads. Above that is an allegorical figure of a seated woman representing Natural History, surrounded by numerous animals, and holding a tablet with Cuvier's motto: "Rerum cognoscere causas." ("to know the causes of things.") Naturalists pointed out that thecrocodile in the group of statues of is turning its head, something that crocodiles are unable to do.[25]
Visconti, who later became famous as the designer of the tomb of Napoleon in the Invalides, designed two other fountains of this new type, commemorating famous Parisians and located in places associated with them.
Fontaine Molière. (1841–44). This fountain by Visconti, located at the corner of rue Traversière and rue Richelieu, was originally going to be a simple Renaissance fountain with a state of a nymph, but Régnier, the head of theComédie Française, proposed that it be instead a monument to the playwrightMolière, since the fountain was near the original site of the Comédie Française and the home of Molière. A public subscription raised money for the fountain. The bronze statue of Molière is byBernard-Gabriel Seurre, and the two allegorical figures at the base of the fountain, representing Light Comedy and Serious Comedy, are byJames Pradier.
Fontaine Saint-Sulpice, (1843–1848), by Louis Visconti was designed to represent the idea of religious elequence, since it was located onPlace Saint-Sulpice, near the famous theological seminary ofSt. Sulpice. It honored four famous religious orators of the 17th century;Bossuet,Fénelon,Fléchier, andMassillon.
Fontaine de l'Archevêche (1843–1845), byAlphonse Vigoureux, located on the present day square Jean XXIII, is a neo-Gothic structure built where the archbishop's palace once stood. The lower part of the fountain shows threearchangels defeating the allegorical figure ofheresy, while the spire contains a statue of the Virgin and child.
Several more modest fountains from the time of Louis-Philippe still exist:
![Fontaine Cuvier, Corner of rue Cuvier and rue Linné, 5th arrondissement (1840-1846), Alphonse Vigouroux, architect and Jean-Jacques Feuchère and René Jules Pomateau, sculptors.[27]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aFontaineCuvier04.jpg)
The reign of Louis-Philippe ended abruptly with the Revolution of 1848, and the establishment of theSecond Republic, underLouis Napoleon, which became, by a coup d'état in 1851, theSecond Empire. After an epidemic ofcholera in 1849, one of Louis Napoleon's highest priorities became improving the quality of the water of Paris. At the time Paris had about sixty fountains supplying drinking water for the population, and a dozen fountains which were purely ornamental.[28] Under his new préfet of the Seine,Baron Haussmann, and his new chief of the waters of Paris, Belgrand, the Paris water system was reconstructed so that water from springs, brought by aqueducts, was used exclusively for drinking water, while less healthy river water was used for washing the streets, watering gardens and parks, and for fountains.
During the Second Empire, as Baron Haussmann launched his reconstruction campaign, famous old fountains were relocated and rebuilt. In 1858 theFontaine des Innocents was moved to a new, lower pedestal in the middle of the square, and six basins of flowing water were added on each side., In 1864, to make room for the new boulevard des Medicis, the orangerie behind theMedici Fountain was demolished, the fountain was moved to a new location in theJardin du Luxembourg, statues were added, the fountain of Leda and the Swan, built during the first Empire, was moved to a place behind it, and a long basin built in front of it. The modest original fountain in the Rond-Point of theChamps-Élysées, built under Louis-Philippe, with just two vasques, was replaced by a larger fountain with six vasques cascading water.
Most of the new monumental fountains built during the reign of Louis Napoleon were the work of a single architect,Gabriel Davioud. Davioud studied sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts, then became architect of theservice de promenades et plantations of the prefecture of the Seine. He was responsible for the design of many of the squares, gates, benches, pavilions, and other decorative architecture of the Second Empire. His principal basins and fountains were:
Louis Napoleon was captured by the Germans at the disastrousbattle of Sedan in 1870 and lost his title. After the occupation of Paris by the Germans and the brief rule of theParis Commune, theThird French Republic was born.Davioud remained as the chief architect of fountains for the city. His first task was to repair the damage caused to the fountains by the German siege of Paris and the fighting during the suppression of the Paris Commune, which had destroyed the Tuilieries Palace and the Hotel de Ville.
Davioud was able to complete two monumental fountains begun under the Second Empire.
Davioud instructed Carpeaux not to block he view of the Luxembourg Palace or the Paris Observatory, but otherwise he had freedom to design what he wanted. He proposed four figures representing the four corners of the world, holding aloft a celestial sphere, and trying to turn it. The sculptor LeGrain was commissioned to make the sphere, and the sculptor Emmanuel Frémier made the horses in the basin around the statue.
Work on the fountain was stopped because of the war in 1870, but resumed in 1872, and it was dedicated in 1874.
The Prefecture instructed Davioud to replace the old fountain of the Place du Trône with the Dalou's monument in the renamedPlace de la Nation. The statues were cast in bronze, A basin was rebuilt, and the fountain opened in 1899. Later, in 1908, six bronze amphibian animals spouting water sculpted byGeorges Gardet were added to the basin.
The bronze statues of the amphibians were taken by the Germans during World War II and disappeared. The basin was removed in the 1960 to make way for the RER regional railway station, but the statues, without basin or water, are still there.[31]
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Davioud built this fountain in the new place, created in 1867, which marked the beginning of the new avenue de l'Opéra, which connected the city's most famous theater with the opera house. The project was begun in 1867, but was interrupted by the war and not finished until 1874.
According to Davioud's plan, two fountains were built. Each has a circular stone basin; a base of gray marble with four seated children in bronze; a bronze vasque; a piédouche, or column, of white marble with medallions with the seal of city, and water spouting from the top; and, at the top of the Piedouche, a rivernymph at the top of the fountain nearest the theater, and a sea nymph at the top of the second fountain. The sea nymph sculpture is byAlbert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse and the four children at the base byLouis-Adolphe Eude; the river nymph was made byMathurin Moreau, and the four children at the base byCharles Gauthier.[32]
Eight universal expositions took place in Paris between 1855 and 1937, and each included fountains, both for decoration and for sale, which demonstrated the latest in technology and artistic styles. They introduced illuminated fountains, fountains which performed with music, fountains made of glass and concrete, and modern abstract fountains to Paris.
The first such exposition, organized in 1855 by Louis Napoleon in response to the huge success of the Universal Exposition in London in 1851, displayed cast-iron fountains, on the model of the Fontaine to Louvois of Visconti, which could be purchased by any town or city.[34]
The most original fountain in the exposition wasLes Sources et les Rivieres of France, made byRené Lalique. It was a column of glass five meters high, made up of 128caryatids of glass, each with a different decoration and size, each spraying a thin stream of water into the fountain below. At night the column was illuminated from within, and could change color. It was placed on a cross of concrete covered with decorated plates of glass, and in an octagonal basin also decorated with colored and black tiles of glass.[38]
The cascades, fountains and basins of the Trocadero, built for the 1878 exposition, were completely rebuilt for the 1937 exposition. Two monumental statues,Apollon byHenri Bouchard andHercule byAlbert Pommier, were placed on the esplendade above the fountains. The main feature was a long basin, or water mirror, with twelve fountain creating columns of water 12 meters high; twenty four smaller fountains four meters high; and ten arches of water. At one end, facing the Seine, were twenty powerful water cannon, able to project a jet of water fifty meters. Above the long basin were two smaller basins, linked with the lower basin by casades flanked by 32 sprays of water four meter high, in vasques. These fountains are the only exposition fountains which still exist today, and still function as they did.
The exhibit also featured two more unusual fountains; a fountain in the Spanish pavilion byAlexander Calder, theFontaine de Mercure, where a small metal structure created a flow ofmercury, and a fountain ofwine, imitating one once created forLouis XIV atVersailles.
Paris fountains in the 20th century no longer had to supply drinking water - they were purely decorative; and, since their water usually came from the river and not from the city adqueducts, their water was no longer drinkable. Twenty-eight new fountains were built in Paris between 1900 and 1940; nine new fountains between 1900 and 1910; four between 1920 and 1930; and fifteen between 1930 and 1940.[40]
The removal of the ring of fortifications around Paris created space for many new parks and squares. Most of the new fountains were located in parks and other green spaces, and most were modest in scale.
The biggest fountains of the period were those built for the International Expositions of 1900, 1925 and 1937, and for the Colonial Exposition of 1931. Of those, only the fountains from the 1937 exposition at the Palais de Chaillot still exist. (See section above on Exposition fountains.)
The form of the classic Paris fountain of the 19th century, with a single or double circular vasque, nearly vanished during the 20th century. replaced by a wide variety of styles and new materials. They ranged from neo-classical styles to a glass fountain made byRené Lalique for the Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées (no longer existing). Several fountains were created to showcase statues made for other purposes, such as the statue "France brings peace and prosperity to the colonies", by sculptor Leon Drivier, originally atop the Palace of Colonies of the 1931 Colonial Exposition, which, after the exhibit closed, was moved to be the centerpiece of a new fountain, the Fontaine de Madeline, in place Eduouard Renard.
The subject matter of the new fountains also varied widely: there is a fountain honoring composerClaude Debussy (The Fontaine Debussy, Place Debussy, 1932); a fountain honoring the engineer who discovered the first artesian well in Paris (The Fontaine George Mulot, on the location of the first artesian well on Rue Grenelle): a fountain for writerLeo Tolstoy; ; a fountain honoring Emile Lavassor, the driver who won first Paris-Bordeaux automobile race in 1895; (Fontaine Lavassor, Porte Maillot; and two fountains in the 16th arrondissement devoted to love; the Fontaine des Amours in the Bagatelle garden (1919) and the Fountain de l'Amour, l'Eveil a la vie. (the awakening of life) in Place de la Porte d'Auteil.[41]
The notable fountains of the pre-war period include, in chronological order:
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Only a handful of fountains were built in Paris between 1940 and 1980. The most important ones built during that period were on the edges of the city, on the west, just outside the city limits, at La Defense, and to the east at the Bois de Vincennes.
Between 1981 and 1995, during the terms of PresidentFrançois Mitterrand and Culture MinisterJack Lang, and of Mitterrand's bitter political rival, Paris MayorJacques Chirac (Mayor from 1977 until 1995), the city experienced a program of monumental fountain building that exceeded that of Napoleon Bonaparte or Louis Philippe. More than one hundred fountains were built in Paris in the 1980s and 1990s, mostly in the neighbourhoods outside the centre of Paris, where there had been few fountains before.[43] The FountainCristaux by Jean-Yves Lechevallier in the new Front de Seine district, theStravinsky Fountain, the Fountain of the Pyramid of theLouvre, the Buren Fountain and Les Sphérades fountain in thePalais-Royal, the Fontaine du Parc Andre-Citroen, the Polypores fountain and new fountains at Les Halles, the Jardin de Reuilly, and beside the Gare Maine-Montparnasse were all built under President Mitterrand and Mayor Chirac.
The Mitterrand-Chirac fountains had no single style or theme. Many of the fountains were designed by famous sculptors or architects, such asJean Tinguely,I.M. Pei,Claes Oldenburg andDaniel Buren, who had radically different ideas of what a fountain should be. Some of them, like the Pyramide de Louvre fountain, had glistening sheets of water; while in the Buren Fountain in thePalais-Royal, the water was invisible, hidden under the pavement of the fountain. Some of the new fountains were designed with the help of noted landscape architects and used natural materials, such as the fountain in the Parc Floral in theBois de Vincennes by landscape architect Daniel Collin and sculptorFrançois Stahly. Some were solemn, and others were whimsical. Most made little effort to blend with their surroundings - they were designed to attract attention.[44]
President Mitterrand and Culture Minister Lang were closely involved in many of the projects they commissioned. Mitterrand personally selected the architect of the Louvre project, and Lang negotiated the design of the Stravinsky Fountain with the sculptors, reducing the number of colorful "nanas" byNiki de Saint-Phalle from two to one.[45]
Many of the fountains were built thanks to a change in the law for public financing of works of art, which required that one percent of the budget for the construction of a public building in Paris be devoted to artistic decoration. This law, originally passed in the 1930s, was extended in the 1980s so that the funding could be used to build art works in the squares and other public areas around the new building. The law was also amended so that the one percent applied to the Grand Projects of the Head of State, which allowed the construction of the fountains near the Pyramid of the Louvre. A special fund, called the LeFonds de la Commande Publique de l'État, was established to fund new works by living artists. This fund paid for the Daniel Buren fountain in the courtyard of the Palais Royale, and the 'Bicyclettte ensevelie" byClaes Oldenburg andCoosje van Bruggen, andHorloges by the sculptor Arman, located in the Park of the Cite of Sciencds and Industry atLa Villette.[44]
Several new parks were constructed during this period with fountains as their centrepieces. These included theParc de Belleville (1988), the historic source of the Paris water supply since the 12th century, where a new park was built, with a flowing stream, cascades, and water stairways, along with two basins with jetting fountains; andParc André Citroën (1992), on the banks of the Seine in the 15th arrondissement, on the site of the former automobile factory, where a series of thematic gardens were created by architectsPatrick Berger, Jean-Paul Viguier and Jean-François Joddry and landscape architects Alain Provost and Gilles Clément. These different fountains shaped water into columns, mirrors and canals, decorated with modern versions of classical peristyles and nympheums.
The old produce markets of Paris, Les Halles, were the site of another new garden with fountains (1988) by architect Louis Arretche, Jean WillervalPierre Mougin.
The Jardins de Reuilly (1992) by Pierre Colboc, were built along the Avenue Daumesnil. with water shaped into canals along the pedestrian paths, inspired by gardens inAndalusia.
A new park, theJardin Atlantique, was built in 1994 on the concrete slab that covers the railway lines of the train station Gare Maine-Montparnasse. This included three modern fountains, the Fontaine des Humidités, the Fontaine des Miroitements, and Fontaine des Hespérides, by architects Christine Schnitzler and François Brun, along with landscape architect Michel Pena, which added water and greenery into an urban space surrounded by huge concrete buildings.
Other new fountains were highly original and personal visions of the artists who created them:
TheFontaine de l'Embacle (1984), in Place du Québec, across from thechurch of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, by the sculptor Daudelin and architect Alfred Gindre, represents a spring bursting through the pavement, pushing up the paving stones, and then pouring back into the earth.
The fountain calledCanyoneaustrate (1988) in front of the Palais Omnisport at Bercy, by the sculptor Singer, shows a giant crevice in the earth, similar to the canyons of the American west, with water cascading down into the canyon to return to its source.
Deux Plateaux in the courtyard of the Palais-Royal by minimalist sculptorDaniel Buren, does not look like a fountain at all. A group of columns with black and white vertical stripes are arranged in a courtyard, and water flows beneath them, seen, except through a grill in the pavement, as if at the bottom of a well. It was attacked for its cost and unsuitability to a historic landmark. Lang, then the culture minister, paid no attention to the orders of the Commission des Monuments Historiques, which objected to the plan.
The largest of the new fountains wasLe Creuset du temps (1988) by sculptorShamai Haber, in the Place de Catalogne behind the Montparnasse train station. It features a gigantic disc, slightly inclined, covered with thousands of granite paving stones in concentric circles, over which water gently flows. This fountain was not maintained by the Paris city council and was not functional for more than a decade, before demolition of the fountain commenced in 2022, for it to be replaced with planters.[46][47]
Few new fountains have been built in Paris since 2000. The most notable isLa Danse de la fontaine emergente, located on Place Augusta-Holmes, rue Paul Klee, in the 13th arrondissement. It was designed by the French-Chinese sculptorChen Zhen, shortly before his death in 2000, and finished by his widow and collaborator Xu Min in 2008. It shows a dragon, in stainless steel, glass and plastic, emerging and submerging from the pavement of the square. Water under pressure flows through the transparent skin of the dragon.[48][49]