The Fontaine Saint-Michel Is Back: 5 Remarkable Fountains of Paris

Inaugurated on August 15, 1860, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud as part of Haussmann’s works, partly to hide the blank wall of a building at the end of the new boulevard Saint-Michel. At 26 meters high, it looks like a triumphal arch: in the center, Francisque Duret’s bronze Saint Michael slays the devil, surrounded by red marble columns and colored stone. At its feet, two winged chimeras by Henri-Alfred Jacquemart guard the basin, and plaques recall the fighters who died on the square during the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. The restoration has brought back all of these colors.

The oldest monumental fountain in Paris was built in 1547–1549 for the royal entry of Henri II, by architect Pierre Lescot and sculptor Jean Goujon, whose slender nymphs decorate the pillars. It originally stood against the wall of the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents. When the cemetery was cleared in the 1780s, the fountain was moved to the center of the new market and given a fourth side by Augustin Pajou. It now rises above a cascade of steps on Place Joachim-du-Bellay; some of Goujon’s original reliefs are in the Louvre.

Squeezed into the narrow rue de Grenelle, this is less a fountain than a palace façade. Edme Bouchardon worked on it from 1739 to 1745: in the center, the City of Paris sits enthroned above the reclining Seine and Marne, while the side niches hold the four seasons that give the fountain its name. Voltaire famously grumbled that it was a lot of stone for very little water, and he was right; the water only ever trickled from two small spouts. The Musée Maillol is right next door.

Facing the Saint-Sulpice church, Louis Visconti’s fountain (1843–1848) honors four great preachers of the 17th century: the bishops Bossuet, Fénelon, Massillon and Fléchier, seated in niches above three basins guarded by lions. Parisians call it the “Fontaine des Quatre Points Cardinaux”: a pun, because in French “point” also means “not”, and none of these four bishops ever became a cardinal.

To finish, a leap to 1983. Next to the Centre Pompidou and the Saint-Merri church, Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle filled a large shallow basin with sixteen sculptures inspired by the works of composer Igor Stravinsky, from the Firebird to the Rite of Spring. Tinguely’s black machines turn and spray while Niki’s colorful figures squirt water around them. Look for the mermaid, the heart and the giant red lips. It is the most playful fountain in Paris.