Fountain of the bees

There are not many tourists that are fortunate enough to see the Fountain of the Bees in Rome, even though it is conveniently located in Piazza Barberini next to Via Veneto, and is easily accessible from the Barberini metro station. In fact, it is neither prominently visible nor it is monumental, but it’s well worth a visit because of its unusual and interesting subject;And because Piazza Barberini is anyway en route, you just have to watch out for it.

The basin of the Fountain of the Bees is sculpted in the shape of a sea shell; a second shell stands as a back panel with an inscription. Three sculpted bees are sitting on the sculpture and three jets of water are gushing from the rock beneath them and overflowing into the lower basins. The fountain is dedicated to the Barberini family - the three bees are a recall to the Barberini family coat of arms, and the inscriptions commemorate the construction of the fountain and its sponsor, Pope Urban VIII.

If all this information is not enough to convince you to visit this place, know that it was sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the famous Italian baroque sculptor.

Strangely enough, it was intended to be a watering through for the horses. The fountain visible today is not the original one, but was slightly modified at the end of the 19th century.