Rome

Fontana del Babuino (The Baboon)

This fountain is so bizarre looking that I stopped to take a photograph of it, not knowing it is one of the six famous "talking statues" ('statue parlanti' in Italian) of Rome, also called "the Congregation of Wits."

It wasn't until I got home and looked it up that I realized this statue (and 5 others in the city) are, in the colorful words of an Italian blogger:

"Famous for being the mean(s) through which people used to criticize or make sarcastic remarks about the Pope and the authorities in general, since the 16th century. In particular, Romans got used to affixing messages against corruption and arrogance on these six statues - and sometimes they still do! - that became so familiar to the city that people started to call them by personal names: Pasquino, Marforio, Madama Lucrezia, Abate Luigi, Il Facchino and Il Babuino. Lots of Popes tried to stop this habit by moving the statues or guarding them day and night, but in vain."

"For sure the spokesperson for popular discontent was not part of the roman working class, the majority of which was illiterate – it had to be academics, intellectuals or members of Roman noble families who shared their dissent through these popular tools."

(This one, a reclining Silenus, a character in Roman mythology that is half man, half goat) was created in honor of the Pope Pio V who, back in 1571, "allowed some ounces of water from the new Aqua Virgo, one of the eleven roman aqueducts that supplied the city of ancient Rome, to get to the noble Grandi's palace in front of which the statue is still located."

Originally meant to depict a satyr, 'Il Babuino' turned out so ugly the Romans decided it looked more like a baboon than a satyr. "It became so much famous that (it) influenced the imagination of the Roman people" who then also changed the name of the street from via Paolina to via del Babuino.

I think we need some of these statues in this country, too!

More about the statues & photos of the other 5 statues @
https://www.romeprivateguides.com/…/talking-statues-of-rome…

congretation of witsdissentfountainsIl BabuinoItalyromestatuesvia del Babuino