Fontaine des Innocents

The Fontaine des Innocents is a monumental public fountain located on the place Joachim-du-Bellay in the Les Halles district in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Originally called the Fountain of the Nymphs, it was constructed between 1547 and 1550 by architect Pierre Lescot and sculptor Jean Goujon in the new style of the French Renaissance. It is the oldest monumental fountain in Paris.

The fountain was commissioned as part of the decoration of the city to commemorate the solemn royal entry of King Henry II into Paris in 1549. Artists were commissioned to construct elaborate monuments, mostly temporary, along his route, from the Port Saint-Denis to the Palais de la Cité, passing by le Châtelet, the Pont Notre-Dame and the Cathedral. The fountain was placed on the site of an earlier fountain dating to the reign of Philip II of France, against the wall of the Saints Innocents Cemetery, at the corner of rue Saint Denis (where the King's procession passed) and rue aux Fers (today's rue Berger), with two façades on one street, one façade on the other. It was to serve as a fountain as well as a grand reviewing stand for local notables; it resembled the walls of a large residence, with water taps along the street at the street level, and a stairway to the loggia on the upper level, where officials stood on the balcony to greet the King. Its original name was the Fountain of the Nymphs.

Once the procession had passed, the structure became a simple water fountain for the neighborhood, with taps, ornamented with lion heads, permanently trickling water. The upper floor of the fountain was eventually turned into a residence, with windows and a chimney.

In 1787, for sanitary reasons, the cemeteries of Paris were moved outside the city walls, and the former cemetery of the Church of the Saints-Innocents, against whose wall the fountain stood, was transformed into a market square, le Marché des Innocents. The fountain was scheduled for destruction. It was saved largely by the efforts of writer Quatremère de Quincy, who wrote a letter to the Journal de Paris urging the preservation of "A masterpiece of French sculpture." The fountain was moved to the middle of a large basin in the market, raised on a stone pedestal decorated with four lions and four basins. The sculptor Augustin Pajou was commissioned to create a fourth façade for the fountain, in the same style as the other three, so that it could be free-standing.

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