The Neptune Fountain

The Neptune Fountain

Probably the most known fountain statue in TriCity and symbol of Gdansk. So, why do I write about it since it is so famous that every tourist knows to stop by it anyway? The answer is quite simple. The fact that it is famous doesn't mean that people know about it.

The Neptune Fountain with Town Hall in background

Let's start at the beginning then. In 1549 first fountain appeared on Long Market (some claim it was simple wooden water jet and calling it 'a fountain' is overstatement:). The "fountain" was placed more to the east from the present one.

The fountain, view from the back

However soon enough the stewards of the city grew tired of the litter water jet in the centre of the city. All the more so as they were able to see greater structures around the world. Naturally they decided that Gdansk deserved a fountain that could proudly represent Gdansk and its residents (that was in 1606).

View of the Neptune and Long street

Abraham van den Blocke was hired for the work (I start to feel like this guy built half of Gdansk!). New place was carefully chosen. It was decided that statue crowning the fountain should be Neptune - the god of freshwater and the sea in roman religion. New fountain was to be faced in direction of apartment houses across the Artus Court. The head of Neptune was to be bowed in respect of kings and queens that resided in said apartment houses when visiting Gdansk. Also the Neptune Fountain is in the axis of the entrance to the Artus Court and the axis of Long Street and Green Gate.

Statues around basin look up to Neptune

It took a long time to finish the fountain. Not only the construction problems, but also the war with Sweden delayed the works. However despite the obstacles the work was completed in 1633. The fountain was created by Abraham van the Blocke, however the statue was of Peter Husen work. Surprisingly the first glimpse at the statue came way before revealing date, thanks to Izaak van den Blocke (brother of Abraham), who decided to paint Artus Court with soon-to-be Neptune Fountain in front of it. I haven't seen the painting myself, but if you like to see it, it is on the ceiling of Red Hall in Town Hall.

Details on the stem

Very advanced solutions were put in place in order to have the fountain work. There was a container build at the attic of Artus Court, with pipes running down the building and under the pavement right to the fountain. Every time that the Neptune Fountain was scheduled to work the container was filled with water (read: people were carrying water up to the attic in buckets). That is probably the reason why the fountain only worked only three times a week (Sundays between 11 - 12, Tuesday and Thursday between 12 - 13) between Easter and 29th of September of every year. I guess there was no coincidence that running time was set for an hour, as the container in the attic of Artus Court has a capacity that allowed fountain to work continuously for an hour. Imagine the persistence: the Neptune Fountain was run this way for 200 years!! (that is until waterworks were built in Gdansk).

Neptune attacking Town Hall tower :)

During II WW the whole fountain was taken apart and hidden away. After the war piece were found in different locations, however some pieces never were found: trident, finn of sea bass and stem, which is rumoured to be sunk in one of Oliwa's lakes.

Some parts of the fountain were hidden in its basin during the war

Surprisingly the fin of the sea bass (which loads of people mistake for a leaf) that covers private parts of Neptune is the single most stolen piece of the fountain. Also, there is a small replica of Neptune (or this replica is the prototype of the statue) at a roof of 2 Long Street building. I didn't know that when I went today to take pictures, pity :)

Old postcard