The Medici Fountain stands in the Luxembourg Gardens. It was moved here in the nineteenth century, and the original building dates from the seventeenth century. A stone wall similar to the facade of a Renaissance building rises above the rectangular water reservoir. During the reconstruction, a figure of Polyphemus was placed in the recess, which looks at Akis and Galatea.
Initially, the fountain stood on the left bank of the Seine, near the Medici Palace. In the 17th century, it was built on the orders of Maria Medycejska, modeled on her family Pitti Palace in Florence. In the nineteenth century, the fountain was moved to the Luxembourg Gardens. Then there were changes in her appearance. The Renaissance building received neoclassical decorations and sculptures.
The fountain presents a Renaissance cave surrounded by columns and resembling the facade of a palace. At its top there are two female figures supporting a semi-circular tympanum. In 1866 a sculpture group by Auguste Ottin was placed in the central part of the cave. It presents a mythological scene in which the giant Polyphemus surprises Akisa and Galatea in love. In the side niches of the fountain there are figures of Diana and Fauna.
Attractions inside
