Pretoria Fountain

Fontana Pretoria is a large fountain built by Francesco Camilliani in the mid 16th century. One interesting fact about this fountain is that it wasn´t actually built in Palermo but in Florence and later on transported to Palermo on Pretoria Square. It was intended to be a private fountain in the Florentine park but was transferred because of exhibition causes and it stayed there until the present day.

The fountain isn´t the only beautiful thing on this square. There are also two churches around it; Church of Saint Catherina and Saint Joseph.

This fountain is richly decorated. One can see all kinds of decorations when walking around it. There are various gods and goddesses, animal heads, monsters, etc.

Due to some nude figures on the fountain, the residents of Palermo weren´t as satisfied with the fountain and it was even called the fountain of shame. It was like the representation of the corruption of people in the city. Even the entire square was, for some period of time, called the Square of Shame.

The fountain was restored about 10 years ago.