In the heart of Treviso’s historic center there is a fountain that has become a city icon for its history, rituals and name itself. The Fontana delle Tette
In this article I will walk you through its origins, ancient uses, where to find the copy and the original, and who created the fountain you can see and touch today.
The history of the Fontana delle Tette 1559 and the wine ritual
The Fontana delle Tette was created in 1559 by order of the podestà Alvise Da Ponte as a “sign of rebirth” after a severe drought.
From the start it became a symbol of the Serenissima. At the installation of each new podestà, for three days the fountain poured white wine from one breast and red wine from the other, offered free to the people.
The tradition sadly lasted only until 1797 with the fall of the Republic of Venice.
Originally the piece was set in a niche of the Palazzo Pretorio on Via Calmaggiore, the main street of the center. Local sources also recall a technical detail. Water for daily use came from the Cagnan, lifted at the Ponte de Pria by a “roda mata” water wheel.
Between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century the statue was damaged tradition says by Napoleonic soldiers then removed and dispersed.
Abbot Luigi Bailo later supported its recovery and its entry into the civic collections.
Where to find the current Fontana delle Tette the one you can see touch and photograph
The one that now pours only water that you can drink and not wine is a copy made in 1989 and placed in the courtyard of Palazzo Zignoli. It is a hidden widening reached through the arcade that links Calmaggiore with Piazzetta della Torre and Calle Vicolo del Podestà.
You can access the fountain freely by day and by night since it is in a public space.
This modern Fontana delle Tette is by the Peruvian sculptor Miguel Miranda Quinones who carved it in 1989. The author of the sixteenth century fountain is not documented. The Civic Museums describe it as the work of a “Venetian sculptor” 1559 to 1560.
Where the original Fontana delle Tette is kept
The original bust of the Fontana delle Tette, heavily mutilated, is now displayed in a case under the loggia of the Palazzo dei Trecento in Piazza dei Signori.
You can view it from outside with museum protection. It is useful if you want to compare the historic piece with the modern copy.
The original bust is no longer connected to any hydraulic system and therefore it pours neither water nor wine.
Useful info and curiosities about the Fontana delle Tette
- Name in Venetian. In local dialect it is often called fontana dee tete.
- Material and form. The sculpture is in Istrian stone. It is a female bust squeezing her breasts above a small shell basin. This description appears on a nineteenth century plaque by Matteo Sernagiotto displayed in the courtyard.
- Today water not wine. Today the fountain pours only water.
- The 2020 promise. In 2020 during the pandemic the mayor Mario Conte announced the idea of letting Prosecco flow to celebrate the end of the emergency. It seems it remained only a promise.