Description
The Fontana del Porcellino ("piglet fountain") is a bronze wild boar beside the loggia of the Mercato Nuovo, a short walk from the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Calling it a piglet isn't quite right, but the fountain is one of the city's best-loved monuments.
Take a look at the snout, which shines from being polished every day by hundreds of hands, and at the basin, a little bronze marsh with plants, insects and small animals. The one in the square is a faithful copy from 1988: the original by Pietro Tacca, cast around 1633, is in the Museo Bardini.
Rubbing the nose brings good luck and promises a return to Florence. The full ritual then calls for a coin in its mouth: it's a good omen if, as it falls, it slips through the grate, which the slope allows only for the heavier coins.
The model is a Hellenistic marble, now in the Uffizi, that Pope Pius IV gave to Cosimo I in 1560. Andersen wrote a fairy tale about it, The Metal Pig.
Take a look at the snout, which shines from being polished every day by hundreds of hands, and at the basin, a little bronze marsh with plants, insects and small animals. The one in the square is a faithful copy from 1988: the original by Pietro Tacca, cast around 1633, is in the Museo Bardini.
Rubbing the nose brings good luck and promises a return to Florence. The full ritual then calls for a coin in its mouth: it's a good omen if, as it falls, it slips through the grate, which the slope allows only for the heavier coins.
The model is a Hellenistic marble, now in the Uffizi, that Pope Pius IV gave to Cosimo I in 1560. Andersen wrote a fairy tale about it, The Metal Pig.