When people ask me for recommendations on Paris attractions, the wonderful Luxembourg Gardens always come up first. They welcome tourists and locals alike into their embrace. It’s hard to stay indifferent to the beautifully manicured grounds, the wonderful collection of statues scattered across more than 57 acres of green space, and the miniature sailboats that children float on the round pond in the central plaza. Or, if you prefer, you can settle into one of the green chairs scattered around the garden and read a book, or admire the Luxembourg Palace standing across the way, which today serves as the seat of the French Senate.
One of the garden’s true gems, sadly hidden away and overlooked by most visitors, is the magnificent Medici Fountain. Built in 1630, the fountain is one of the most beautiful in Paris, but its location off to the side, in a relatively secluded corner of the garden, shaded by a row of tall, leafy trees, causes many visitors to walk right past it. That’s really a shame, because beyond its wonderful beauty, the fountain has deep roots in France‘s rich history.
The History of the Luxembourg Gardens
When her husband Henri IV (r. 1589-1610) died, Marie de Médicis (1575-1642), acting as regent for her young son Louis XIII (r. 1610-1643), wanted to build a new residence that would remind her of her Italian roots. After all, we are shaped by the landscapes of our homeland, and Médicis, wanting to feel at home, chose to model the palace on the Palazzo Pitti, and the gardens around it on the Boboli Gardens in her native Florence.
Médicis commissioned the Medici Fountain, originally called the “Luxembourg Grotto” (La grotte du Luxembourg), in 1624, and wanted it to carry the typical features of Italian Mannerism: an elaborate fountain combined with an artificial grotto decorated with statues, much like the Grotta di Buontalenti she knew from the Boboli Gardens. The architect chosen for the construction and design was Tommaso Francini, the same man responsible for the fountains and waterworks at the Medici villas in Florence and Rome.
Francini created a large basin leading to a huge, sculpted fountain, topped with statues of two nymphs pouring water from their jugs, and a pediment bearing the Medici family crest. The fountain was considered one of the wonders of its time, mainly because of its location on the Left Bank of Paris, where there was no free-flowing water, a problem only solved with the construction of the Arcueil aqueduct in 1623. Unlike the Right Bank, where groundwater was accessible, the water table on the Left Bank was quite deep, and water had to be carried by hand from the Seine. (It’s worth adding that because of this shortage of running water, Paris’s urban growth until the early 17th century was concentrated mainly on the Right Bank.)
After Médicis’s death, the gardens and palace passed through several owners. By the mid-18th century, most of the estate, including the fountain, was in serious need of repair due to poor upkeep. The neglect was so severe that the fountain’s statues were missing (perhaps stolen) and the retaining wall behind it had eroded to the point of near collapse.
Fortunately, in 1811 Napoleon appointed the architect Jean Chalgrin, who among other things designed the Arc de Triomphe, to restore the historic fountain and the nearby Luxembourg Palace. Fifty years later, as part of the many changes Baron Haussmann made to the city under Napoleon III, the fountain underwent another transformation: it had to be moved about 28 meters to make room for the street being built behind it (Rue de Médicis).
Moving the fountain left an empty space where the original buildings had stood. The creative solution found by the architect Alphonse de Gisors was to relocate another fountain, the “Fontaine Léda,” that stood on a nearby street and was itself in need of a new home because of the changes sweeping the city. The fountain fit like a glove as the backdrop for the Medici Fountain, but the move didn’t do it any favors: passersby barely notice it exists, focusing instead on its more beautiful sister.
The Medici Fountain
Gisors’s changes essentially created the fountain’s facade as we know it today: he added two new statues representing the Seine and the Rhône rivers at the top of the fountain, in the spot once occupied by the nymphs. He restored the Medici family crest, which had been deliberately defaced during the French Revolution (like other royal symbols), and installed a sculptural group by the sculptor Auguste Ottin.
The work depicts the cyclops Polyphemus, consumed by jealousy, holding a rock in his hand, waiting to crush Acis, who holds his beloved Galatea in his arms, while on either side of the fountain, Pan (a satyr, half man and half goat) and Diana, goddess of the hunt, look on.
The fascinating story behind the sculpture comes from the Roman poet Ovid, and tells of a love triangle between Acis, a handsome young man, Galatea, the beautiful sea nymph, and Polyphemus, the cyclops. Galatea is in love with Acis and despises the monstrous giant who pursues her ardently; she hides with her lover beneath a rock.
The cyclops, consumed by jealousy, spots the surprised pair of lovers, and at the very moment immortalized in the fountain, tears a huge rock from the ground in a fit of rage and hurls it at Acis, killing him. But the gods of Olympus took pity: the dead cannot be brought back to life, but there is always the option of turning into something else. Acis is revived when the rock splits open, a stream of water bursts forth, and he becomes a river god (the Acis River in Sicily), or in our case, the magnificent Medici Fountain: a fountain that stands as lasting proof of Parisian beauty and aesthetics.
For more on Paris attractions
Related reading
