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The sixteenth-century public fountains in Italy were not constructed in Florence but in other towns, above all at Messina, and the Messina fountains served as a stimulus for the fountain in Florence, not surprisingly because their sculptor was a Florentine, Montorsoli.
In September 1547 Montorsoli travelled to Messina to produce the Fountain of Orion in front of the cathedral. The elaborately carved marble basin supports four reclining river-gods, the first use of such a formula in Renaissance art and also the first example of an urban fountain with symbolism directly related to water; a statue of the city's founder, Orion, surmounts two further basins. Before the fountain could be erected in 1553, the church of San Lorenzo had to be demolished to make way for it. It was rebuilt elsewhere to plans by Montorsoli (destroyed 1783).
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