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Elvas
Portalegre (distrito) Alentejo Rua de São Lourenço |
Fonte de São LourençoSt. Lawrence Fountain |
18th century |
The São Lourenço fountain was built in the second half of the 18th century, commissioned by the judge Bernardo Xavier de Barbosa Sachetti and designed by the French military engineer Guillaume Louis Antoine de Valleré (1727-1796). The was grandiose and expensive as Sachetti wanted, and Valleré influenced by the French 'art classique' began to construct a fountain on which statues of female figures of Greco-Roman mythology should be placed. The project provoked controversy and a serious disagreement between Valleré and Sachetti, which meant that it was never finished. The statues that would serve remained in the Quinta de Sto. António until 2005 when the Municipality of Elvas bought the statues and finished the construction of the fountain.
The fountain consists of three faucets that let water flow into a rectangular tank, topped by four columns intersected by parallelepipeds with at the top four statues. A circular pedestal in the center was meant for a fifth statue but is at the moment occupied by a sort of vase.
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We could not identify the different figures.
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