The Trevi Fountain
at the juncture of three roads (tre vie)
marks the terminal point of the Aqua Virgo (Italian:
Acqua Vergine),
one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water
to Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a
virgin, Roman technicians located a source of
pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This
scene is presented on the present fountain's
facade). However, the eventual indirect route of
the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14
miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water
into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for
more than four hundred years. The "coup de grace"
for the urban life of late classical Rome came
when the Goth besiegers broke the aqueducts.
Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water
from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which
was also used as a sewer.
The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival.
