The fountain has been out of service since it was damaged in the fall of 2022 and restoration work began. Visitors to the Royal Gardens of Prague Castle can listen to it again from tomorrow, always from ten in the morning to seven in the evening. Entrance to the gardens is completely free, and security checks were also abolished last year.
“The singing fountain is an extremely valuable Renaissance work. However, since it has been permanently exposed to the weather for centuries, repairs were unavoidable. A more fundamental restoration operation was needed twenty-two years ago, when the lower bowl was leaking. Then, over the years, the nozzle on the bagpiper’s instrument broke off twice. That’s why we started restoration work less than two years ago, and in addition to repairing the nozzles, we also cleaned the fountain of an extremely thick layer of limescale and then preserved its surface,” Petr Chotěbor, head of the Department of Specialized Monument Care, describes the progress of the restoration work.
The singing fountain was designed at the request of Emperor Ferdinand I Habsburg by his court painter Francesco Terziov from Bergamo and cast in bronze by Tomáš Jaroš from Brno. Although it was completed as early as 1568, the water pipes were not laid until six years later. The fountain is divided into two levels by central round bowls placed one above the other, which is supported by a strong pillar, the stem of which is decorated with figures of shepherds supporting the bowls of the Astaro Greek Pan – the protector of the springs. Male and female masks with palmetto leaves alternate in the decorative frieze. The upper tank is decorated with figures, garlands and masks. The fountain is topped by a figure of a piper playing. Water gushes from human and animal heads, falls on bronze bowls and makes a soft ringing sound.