Which Baroque sculptor designed the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona?

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Which Baroque sculptor designed the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona? Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed it.

Bernini created the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in Rome between 1648 and 1651 for Pope Innocent X. The fountain rises around an ancient Egyptian obelisk and features four river gods representing the Nile, Ganges, Danube, and Río de la Plata—the major waterways associated with four continents known to Europeans.

The commission was politically important because Piazza Navona stood before the Pamphili family palace and the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, sponsored by Innocent X. Bernini's design turned water, sculpture, architecture, and papal symbolism into a theatrical public spectacle.

A famous story says the Nile figure covers its face because Bernini feared Borromini's nearby church. That story is false: the fountain was completed before Sant'Agnese's facade took its final form. Francesco Borromini was Bernini's rival, but he did not design this fountain.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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