Description
The Fontana Tancredi, also called Fonte Grande, is a monumental medieval fountain at the gates of Brindisi, on the route of the ancient Via Traiana, now the provincial road to San Vito, just before you enter the city. A Norman king had it built for his son's wedding, and for centuries it quenched the thirst of travelers and animals and watered the gardens.
It has two loggias topped by small domes with a neo-Moorish air and a long rectangular trough, where the horses and draft animals arriving in the city drank. On the fountain are the coats of arms of Brindisi, of Charles V and of the governor Ferrante Loffredo, and two Latin inscriptions that are now barely legible.
A fountain is believed to have stood here as early as Roman times. Today's dates from 1192, built at the behest of Tancred, Count of Lecce and last Norman king of Sicily, for the wedding of his son Roger to Princess Irene Angelina.
The bride was the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Isaac II, and the wedding was celebrated in Brindisi Cathedral. The first inscription honors both kings, father and son: Tancred had recently made Roger his co-king.
In 1540 Ferrante Loffredo, governor of the Terra d'Otranto, restored the fountain together with the last stretch of the road. The second inscription spoke directly to the wayfarer, with a brisk invitation, “sta, bibe et propera”: stop, drink and hurry on.
The water was plentiful and very pure: doctors and experts considered it the best in the city and its surroundings, and the sick used it too. It also watered the vegetable plots and gardens along that stretch of coast.
In 1828 a new restoration probably enlarged the fountain. A 1797 print by Antoine-Laurent Castellan shows the loggias with pyramid roofs: today's small domes may well date from the 19th-century work.
It has two loggias topped by small domes with a neo-Moorish air and a long rectangular trough, where the horses and draft animals arriving in the city drank. On the fountain are the coats of arms of Brindisi, of Charles V and of the governor Ferrante Loffredo, and two Latin inscriptions that are now barely legible.
A fountain is believed to have stood here as early as Roman times. Today's dates from 1192, built at the behest of Tancred, Count of Lecce and last Norman king of Sicily, for the wedding of his son Roger to Princess Irene Angelina.
The bride was the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Isaac II, and the wedding was celebrated in Brindisi Cathedral. The first inscription honors both kings, father and son: Tancred had recently made Roger his co-king.
In 1540 Ferrante Loffredo, governor of the Terra d'Otranto, restored the fountain together with the last stretch of the road. The second inscription spoke directly to the wayfarer, with a brisk invitation, “sta, bibe et propera”: stop, drink and hurry on.
The water was plentiful and very pure: doctors and experts considered it the best in the city and its surroundings, and the sick used it too. It also watered the vegetable plots and gardens along that stretch of coast.
In 1828 a new restoration probably enlarged the fountain. A 1797 print by Antoine-Laurent Castellan shows the loggias with pyramid roofs: today's small domes may well date from the 19th-century work.