Near the entrance of the village of Prossedi, along the old Marittima road is the monumental Fountain of the Popes.
It was commissioned in 1727 by the marchese Livio De Carolis, a nobleman originally from Pofi who governed the town for 20 years.
His family had made a fortune with the exclusive right to collect taxes on milled grain in the provinces of Marittima and Campagna and he bought the fiefdom of Prossedi from the Altieri family through Papa Benedetto XIII.
Livio must have been a lover of fountains because he built a fountain in 1711 in Frosinone in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Snow, and in 1727 this one in Prossedi.
The fountain was inaugurated by Papa Benedetto XIII directly with a procession of 92 carriages from Frosinone.
The fountain is made up of a large basin that stands beside a marble plinth on which is shown the history of the fountain itself.
The final decorative element above the story is the papal coat of arms of Pope Benedict XIII, that of the bishop and that of the marchese De Carolis, which was then eliminated by subsequent owners of Prossedi.
The fountain served as a washing place for women of Prossedi while the two side tubs served as watering holes for the herdsmen.
Follow us