The Zodiac Fountain

The monumental fountain in Tacito Square is the iconic emblem of Terni and a symbolic representation of its steel industry, which has made it famous beyond national borders and has defined its identity for over a century.

It was inaugurated in April 1936, four years after the Municipality of Terni announced a national competition aimed at "engineers, architects and artists of the Kingdom" for the design of a monumental fountain for Tacito Square, symbolizing industrial Terni and the hydraulic energy that was its “driving force”. The choice of Tacito Square was not accidental, as it had been the focal point of the new urban layout designed to respond to the city's new social and economic reality since the end of the 19th century—a junction between important thoroughfares: Corso Tacito, Viale della Stazione (the station was opened in 1864) and the road leading to the industrial area (Viale Benedetto Brin).

The fountain was designed in a modernist and rationalist style by architects Mario Ridolfi and Mario Fagiolo, winners of the competition. They conceived a structure combining various materials: a granite base, a circular crown in porphyry, a large basin and an internal basin in Carrara marble, with a steel needle (mast) in the centre.
The monument is also characterized by the splendid mosaic decoration in the lower basin, reproducing the twelve signs of the zodiac - representations of the water regime throughout the months of the year. The artist Corrado Cagli designed these mosaics in 1934 and had them made in polychrome glass tiles by the Salviati company of Venice.

Damage caused by the bombings of the Second World War made major reconstruction and renovation, that also involved the mosaics, necessary. They were redesigned in 1961 by Cagli himself, who proposed the use of stone tiles, produced by the Mosaici Marini company in Rome, for the new version. Completely renovated, the Zodiac Fountain was handed back to the city in June 1961 during the Water Festival.

A long and complex restoration programme of the monument was completed in December 2021, involving multiple interventions, from the mosaics to the hydraulic components for restoring the water jets and lighting. The original mosaic, whose tiles were severely deteriorated, was removed and restored for museum display. In its place now, there is a copy of Cagli's work (which is protected), a faithful reproduction retaining all its characteristics—from the designs of the zodiac signs to the colours.

On 29 December 2021, the Zodiac Fountain was once again working and illuminated.