Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Medici Fountain, located in the Luxembourg garden in Paris, was built around 1630 upon the order of Queen Marie de Medici, widow of Henry IV. Designed by Florentine engineer Tommaso Francini, it was intended to mask the buildings of nearby Hell Street. Its 14-metre-high façade, decorated with Tuscan columns and three niches, was surmounted by a pediment with the arms of France and the Medici, framed by allegories of the Rhône and the Seine. Originally, the pool in front of the cave did not have water games, and the fountain was inspired by Italian caves, like the one later made in Wideville.

At the beginning of the 19th century, after the Revolution, the architect Jean-François Chalgrin restored the fountain, then called "the cave of Luxembourg". The royal weapons were removed, and a statue of Venus in marble was placed in the central niche, transforming the portico into a fountain. The basin was then fed by a waterfall. However, in the 1860s, the fountain was moved 30 metres due to the drilling of the Rue de Medici, as part of the Haussmannian works. The architect Alphonse de Gisors enlarged the basin and added basins, while replacing the Venus with the statuary group surprising Polyphemy Galatée in the arms of Acis, carved by Auguste Ottin.

The fountain was listed as a historic monument in 1889. During the occupation in 1944, it was temporarily transformed into a swimming pool by the Germans. Major restoration took place between 2020 and 2021. At the back, the fountain of Léda, originally located on Rue du Regard, was integrated into the 19th century. The latter includes a bas-relief of Achille Valois (1807) and statues of Naiads by Jean-Baptiste-Jules Klagmann.

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