Fountain of Apollo or of the Four Seasons

The Fountain of Apollo or of the Four Seasons was designed by Ventura Rodríguez and built by Alfonso Giraldo Bergaz (Apollo) and Manuel Álvarez El Griego (rest of the figures). It was inaugurated in 1803 during the reign of Charles IV to celebrate the marriage of his son, the future Ferdinand VII, to Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily. The Fountain of Apollo is also known in Madrid as the Fountain of the Four Seasons because they are sculpted in the form of allegories: spring bears a basket of flowers; summer, a bundle of wheat; autumn, a bunch of grapes; and winter, a crown of vines. The fountain also features two masks representing Circe and Medusa, who according to Greek mythology were an enchantress and a monstrous female capable of turning to stone anyone who gazed into her eyes. Water flows from them into a succession of basins.