The Due Fiumi (“Two Rivers”) Fountain

We recommend starting out at the monumental Due Fiumi (“Two Rivers”) Fountain on Largo Garibaldi. It was inaugurated in 1938 when the city's new aqueduct went into operation.
The Due Fiumi Fountain is considered Graziosi’s most prestigious work. Designed to beautify Modena’s eastern entrance, this sculpture displays a series of circular travertine basins and two bronze figures, one female and one male, which respectively symbolize the Secchia and the Panaro Rivers.
The male figure, who faces east toward the river, is an imposing young man who pours water from an earthen jar with one hand and, with the other, carries a tree branch across his shoulders. The female figure is a young woman, a symbol of fertility, who faces the city. She holds a sheaf of grain that spouts a jet of water.
Impressive and imposing, the fountain merits an evening visit as well, when it is expertly illuminated by spectacular beams of light.