Welcome to the site Napoliforme

At the centre of the gardens dedicated to Salvatore di Giacomo (1860-1934), the Coccovàja fountain was a public fountain in the 16th century in the street of Porto, rebuilt in 1834 and moved to Posillipo in the 20th century. The poet's words from Era de maggio (1885), inscribed on a stone cippus, celebrate tales of love and suggestions of Posillipo. The history of the fountain itself is a legendary tale. Commissioned in 1545 by the viceroy Pedro de Toledo from the sculptor Giovanni da Nola for the Piazza del Porto (also called Piazza dell'Olmo), the fountain was very different from the present one: at the base it has a square basin with a rocky mountain in the centre with four small caves with statues of Venus, Apollo, Cupid and Minerva. At the top of the mountain is another smaller basin, with a rock in the centre holding Charles V's imperial eagle. To Neapolitans, the eagle looks like a coccovàja (owl, from the Latin cocovaja) and this became the fountain's 'main' name. In fact, the fountain is also known as the Fountain of Enchantments, probably from the sale 'all'incanto' (at the best price offered) of the goods that the peddlers ('incantatori') displayed outside, in the shade of the large tree in the square. Other enchantments for which the fountain is known are the spells of the town's witches, who use the water for their often poisonous magic potions. One sorceress, in order to induce a young girl to give in to the desires of a Spanish nobleman, prepares a love potion for the girl to drink, but the ingredients are toxic and cause her death. Piazza di Porto disappeared during the work of the Restoration (1899) and the fountain, kept in the municipal deposits, was reassembled at Posillipo.