Jardin Du Luxembourg - Medici Fountain

Medici Fountain

The Medici Fountain (La fontaine Médicis) was built in 1630 by Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV of France and regent of King Louis XIII of France. It was designed by Tomasso Francini, a Florentine fountain maker and hydraulic engineer who was brought from Florence to France by King Henry IV. It was in the form of a grotto, a popular feature of the Italian Renaissance garden. It fell into ruins during the 18th century, but in 1811, at the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, the fountain was restored by Jean Chalgrin, the architect of the Arc de Triomphe. In 1864-66, the fountain was moved to its present location, centered on the east front of the Palais du Luxembourg. The long basin of water was built and flanked by plane trees, and the sculptures of the giant Polyphemus surprising the lovers Acis and Galatea, by French classical sculptor Auguste Ottin, were added to the grotto's rockwork.

Hidden behind the Medici Fountain is the Fontaine de Léda, (1807), a wall fountain built during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte at the corner of the Rue du Regard and Rue de Vaugirard, with a bas-relief sculpture depicting the legend of Leda and the Swan by Achille Valois. When the original site was destroyed during the prolongation of the Rue de Rennes in 1856 by Louis Napoleon, the fountain was preserved and moved in 1866 to the Luxembourg Gardens and attached to the back of the Medici Fountain.