Next time you find yourself walking in Sempione Park, go in search of one of the Rotten Water Fountains, near theCivic Arena. Curious name. Some of you will rummage, it may be, through your memories of yesteryear, find old faded or black-and-white images: queues of thirsty ladies and gentlemen, old people and cyclists; all crowded around the fountain; all equipped with bottles or other types of containers to collect the water, sulfurous and foul-smelling… but apparently, a real panacea for health! The “water of youth,” as many named it!
Of rotten water fountains in Milan, there are three. In addition to the one in Sempione Park, the only one gushing until recently, another is on Viale Piceno and the third in Piazza Sant’Angelo. This one, for us, is the most fascinating, in the elegant little square next to the flower stand, adorned with a bronze St. Francis talking to birds. The group is by Milanese sculptor Giannino Castiglioni, whom we have often named as the author of many funerary works during our guided tours of the Monumental Cemetery. The rotten water fountains are all octagonal in shape and all share the unmistakable smell of … rotten egg!
But the news today, as informed by a green sign near the fountain in Simplon Park, is that the water has been declared undrinkable! That it has always been so? It is a fact that today there is never anyone around the fountains!
Did you like this story?
If you’d like, click one of the icons below, leave a small review, and help us grow and improve!
Thank you!
