Fountains, Squares and Bridges

Cavallina Fountain of Genzano di Lucania

The Cavallina Fountain in Genzano di Lucania, in its monumental architectural complex, has the shape of an amphitheater with a structure of solid, fired, natural bricks, without plaster and with an upper curb made of live stone. It has a floor made of pavement that extends to the two access ramps. The inner wall of the ramps begins and ends with a pillar, on which rests a quadrangular base bearing a stone pine cone. Said wall is also interspersed with seven other pillars, equidistant from each other, which extend through a quadrangular plinth, underlying a small column, about half a meter high. The three small columns in the central part carry a protective wrought-iron railing. It is fed by an inexhaustible pool of spring water, coming from three directions: from the northwest, an area known as "Giardino"; from the southwest "San Giorgio"; and from the northeast "Sotto il Municipio." The first branch feeds the Fountain, the second feeds a secondary pool, and the third feeds the public trough. The latter by means of an underground tunnel, built at eye level, crosses Via Cavour, skirts the Town Hall, extends down Via De Marinis and channels water from a deep cistern, located at the intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via De Marinis. Surplus water, including rainwater, drains via tunnels into the nearby Vallone dei Greci. On the Roman-style arch stands the statue of the goddess Ceres, commonly called "Holy Abundance." It is a very valuable archaeological find from the 1st cent. BCE. – 1st century AD, found in the second half of the 1800s near the Pila Grande about 2 km. from the town, where Féstula, an ancient pagan city, once stood. The statue, artistically carved on live stone, is about 1.5 meters tall. In its original entirety, it held suspended the flap of a peplos with one hand and clutched a handful of ears of corn with the other. On October 25, 1978, the Cavallina Fountain was reproduced on an ordinary postage stamp of £.120 in the "Fountains of Italy" series, which brings together 21 fountains throughout Italy.

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