The legend narrates that in the vicinity of the place where the fountain stands, a fount of oil gushed forth the night Jesus Christ was born. This marvel persuaded the christians to ask permission of the emperor Alessandro Severo (III century) to erect the first church dedicated to the Vergin in Rome, near where Pope Adriano I had a fountain built in 795, substituted afterwards by the one now standing and handed down to us in its actual form after having undergone numerous restorations during the course of time.
The exact date of the construction is not known but its existence is documented in urban illustrations starting from the second half of the XV century. The first known restoration was probably commissioned to Bramante at the end of ‘400 by the Spaniard Giovanni Lòpez, made cardinal by Alessandro VI Borgia; the heraldic symbol distinguishing the Lòpez is still present in the four wolf heads through which the water flows before gushing itself into the shells that pour it into the central basin.
Due to the lack of water pressure it was considered a “dry basin” until the problem was solved in 1659 by Pope Alessandro VII by bringing in the Acqua Paola water supply and entrusting the works to Bernini who was responsible for moving it to the centre of the square. Before him Girolamo Rainaldi was involved in work on the fountain probably carrying out those originally commissioned to Giacomo Della Porta.
The most significant restoration with regard to its current aspect is Carlo Fontana’s in 1694 whose bivalved shells were inspired by Bernini’s Fountain of the Bees, standing today on the corner of Piazza Barberini with Via Veneto. The architectural imprint of this restoration was only partly altered by radical intervention in 1873 resulting in the fountain being re-built in bardiglio marble instead of the original roman travertine, conserving the end of ‘600 model of Baroque characteristics that had not yet merged with the aristocratic and fashionable rococò. The last restoration took place in 1930 when the works of reinforcement were brought to completion.
This is the oldest fountain in Rome, according to tradition ,so much so that the people called the church in Santa Maria in Trastevere Sancta Maria in fontibus. It is certainly the only one situated in Trastevere in what was considered a poor district until a short time ago. Maybe it’s not a coincidence that Carlo Fontana’s works were commissioned by Pope Innocenzo XII Pignatelli, born in Puglia and educated in the Jesuit College in Rome, who abolished nepotism and affermed “the poor are my grandchildren”.