TRATTO DAL TESTO DI SANTI CORRENTI DEL 1991
CALTAGIRONE , LA FAENZA DELLA SICILIA VA ORGOGLIOSA DELLE SUE SETTE MERAVIGLIE, CHE SONO :
1) LA BELLISSIMA SCALA DI SANTA MARIA DEL MONTE, VERAMENTE FANTASMAGORICA NELL’ILLUMINAZIONE PER LA FESTA DI SAN GIACOMO IL 25 LUGLIO
2) IL PONTE, CHE UNISCE LE DUE PARTI DELLA CITTA’ 
3) IL FONTE
1605–1607 The contract with the Gagini
Without the great fountain of the Camilliani, the solution was more concrete and more civic: two large monumental pylons — the fountains — with washrooms, troughs and public fountains, richly decorated. Three functions in one: drinking water, water to wash cloths, water for animals.
The contract was concluded on September 22, 1605 in front of the notary Antonino Trabucco di Caltagirone. The masters in charge were Giandomenico Gagini (son of Antonuzzo, fifth generation of the great Lombard-Tician family), Tomaso Giarracca, Luca Favigliani and other companions. Work began immediately.
On December 5 of the following year, 1606, two external experts — Giovanni Maffei, architect of Piazza, and Giuseppe Fulco di Castrogiovanni — went to Caltagirone to evaluate the factory already carried out. The appraisal was accurate and documented.
The Costs of Acquanuova
First evaluation (5 Dec. 1606) — fountain, receptacles, stairs, marble masks onze 1.170.17.2
Payment made at 28 April 1607 onze 1,000
Second appraisal (15 June 1608) — additional times and steps onze 169.18.5
Total cost of the work ~ onze 1.340
Today’s equivalent approximate (1 onza ≈ €180) ~ €241,200
Monetary note: Sicilian onza was the Kingdom’s main account currency, equivalent to 30 tarì or 600 grains. The conversion to Italian liras in 1860 was worth about 12.75 lire. The Sicilian proverb “It’s meghiu un amicu la chiazza, ca cen’onzi la cascia” equates 100 unces to an asset of enormous value; historians estimate 1 inza at about 150–200 euros current as purchasing power. Conversion is indicative.
1607 The inauguration and the inscription
On 28 April 1607, the depositary of the city Francesco Amato signed the receipt of payment of a thousand unzies to the master carvers. The following year, in 1608, a second notary deed at the same notary Trabucco — dated September 12, 1609 — sanctioned that all the masters declared themselves “wholly paid for the price of the works made”.
On the work, the masters left carved in stone a Latin inscription that celebrated together the King of Spain, the viceroy and the magistrates citizens who had made this miracle of engineering possible:
Original inscription — Acquanuova di Caltagirone
D. O. M.
PHO REGE CATHOLIC INVICTISS.
IOANNE FERNANDEZ PACECO VILIENÆ
MARCHIONE ET ASCALONE DUCE PROREGE
MAGISTRATUM GERENTIB. D. VESPAS. BONANNO
FRANCISCO MONTELEONE
HIERONYMO PALMERIO FONS ISTE CONSTRUCVS
CALTAIERON FREE TRANSFIXIS MONTIBUS ALTIS
PREBVIT IN SICCO QVOD FLVAT VNDA LOCO
1607
D. O. M. Deo Optimo Maximo — To God Excellent Maximus
PHO REGE CATHOLIC INVICTISS. Under Philip, Most Invited Catholic King (Philip III of Spain)
IOANNE FERNANDEZ PACECO VILIENÆ MARCHIONE ET ASCALONE DUCE PROREGE Giovanni Fernández Pacheco, Marquis of Villena and Duke of Ascoli, Viceroy (Viceroy of Sicily)
MAGISTRATUM GERENTIB. D. VESPAS. BONANNO / FRANCISCO MONTELEONE / HIERONYMO PALMERIO Being magistrates: Mr. Vespasiano Bonanno, Francesco Monteleone, Geronimo Palmerio
FONS ISTE CONSTRUCVS CALTAIERON GRATIS TRANSFIXIS MONTIBUS ALTIS PREBVIT IN SICCO QVOD FLVAT VNDA LOCO “This source, built in Caltagirone, having crossed the high mountains free of charge, provided running water in an arid place”
Eighty-six years of work, condensed into two Latin hexameters.
Who were the Gagini
Giandomenico Gagini junior was the artistic protagonist of the opera. It belonged to the fifth generation of a lineage that had dominated Sicilian sculpture for over a century and a half. It all began with Domenico Gagini, of Bissone in the canton of Ticino, who around 1459 had settled in Palermo founding the most important sculpture workshop of the Sicilian Renaissance. His son Antonello — considered the greatest Sicilian sculptor of all time — had expanded the enterprise; the grandchildren and great-grandchildren had spread throughout the island.
The family’s Caltagironese line had already been rooted in the city for generations: Giandomenico senior (son of Antonello) had stayed there since the mid-sixteenth century; his son Antonuzzo had worked there since 1583; and now Giandomenico junior carried on the family art. From birth to death, he always lived in Caltagirone.
Life of Giandomenico Gagini junior — from the parish registers of San Giorgio, Caltagirone
“On 27 February 1593 he had taken a Nunzia di Pitrolo, who made him the father of Angela (1593), Bartolomeo (1597), a second Angela (1600), Giacomo (1602), Andrea (1604), Francesco (1610), Agata (1611) and Giambattista (1613). He closed his industrious existence at 21 July 1627, having already tested at 21 April 1618, and was buried in S. Agate.”
Di Marzo, p. 594, from the investigations of the Caltagironesi doct. Vincenzo Ingo and cav. Emmanuele Taranto Rosso.
In addition to the fountains, Di Marzo attributes to Giandomenico the four large marble masks from whose mouths the water flowed in the pools — the most refined sculptural works of the entire complex. Of his hand is also the holy water of the church of Sant’Agata (1610), signed “IOAM. DOMINIC. GAGINI M. 1610”, and various portals and stone carvings throughout the city.
The work described by Di Marzo
The complex therefore included: a large underground reservoir; two pools protruding from stone backs; four marble masks from which the water gushed; lateral figures at the end (terms, i.e. columns topped by busts, here the caryatids and telamons); pine decorations; two eagles with the coat of arms of the city; two tombstones with inscriptions, of which only one survivor. The front staircase — from which the citizens came down from the country to the sources — and the rear one were already destroyed in the days of March.
1740–1851 The long journey of the Camilliani marbles
The pieces of marble carved by the Camilliani and shelved in 1592 slept in storage for over 150 years. In 1740, on the initiative of Senator Romano, the fountain was recomposed to adorn the square of the Loggia — the civic heart of the city, today Piazza del Municipio — where it remained until 1797, the year in which it was disassembled and dismembered.
Then another decades of oblivion, until work on the Public Garden began in 1846. In 1851 it was called the architect Giambattista Filippo Basile, who recovered and placed the fragments in the Public Garden. Here they still rest today: in the lower part of the Villa Vittorio Emanuele II you can admire one of the pools of the fountain of Camilliani of the sixteenth century, with the mutila figure of Triton — relic of a dream four hundred years old.
1864–1886 The new network and the Ganzaria
The Fontanoni had served the city for almost three centuries, but in the second half of the nineteenth century the network showed its limits. In 1864 the Council called an expert who, after numerous essays, stated that only in the Mountain of Ganzaria were new sources of drinking water. On 11 July 1886 the inauguration was made and for the occasion a fountain was built and sixteen floral-style fountains were built throughout the city.
1943 · 2014 War and restoration
One of the two Fountains was damaged during the Second World War — in July 1943, the Allied landing, the bombings on Sicily — and then rebuilt in the post-war period. They had survived the earthquake of 1693 that had razed Caltagirone and ten other Sicilian cities killing a hundred thousand people; they did not escape the war of the twentieth century.
In 2014, thanks to a contribution, the Fontanoni were restored and restored. The FAI — Fondo Ambiente Italiano — has included them among the «Places of the Heart» in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 campaigns.
04) IL CONTE
Il Conte Gravina col suo bel Palazzo dagli artistici mensoloni.
Count Gravina with his beautiful Palace with artistic mensoloni.
5) IL FIGLIO DEL CONTE
6) L’ASINA DI MAJURI
L’Asina di Majuri, che era un Consigliere Comunale paralitico, che aveva insegnato alla sua asina a salire le scale del Municipio.
The Majuri Donkey, who was a Paralytic City Councillor, who had taught his donkey to climb the stairs of the City Hall.
07) IL SENO DI DONNA CONCETTA
IL Seno di Donna Concetta, che era veramente, a detta del popolo, una coosa eccezionale.
The breast of Donna Concetta, which was truly, according to the people, an exceptional thing.
8) GUALTIERO
A queste Sette Meraviglie tradizionali, recentemente se n’è aggiunta un ottava, un Monumento che nelle intenzioni vorrebbe onorare un Personaggio storico di Caltagirone, Gualtiero, che fu uno dei tre Capi Siciliani del Vespro, e che fu decapitato dagli Aragonesi nel 1283 nel Piano di San Giuliano.
Dei versi satirici, determinati dall’eccezionale bruttezza del Monumento, dicono che questa non è stata la maniera di onorare Gualtiero, ma di ucciderlo per la seconda volta.
To these Seven Traditional Wonders, recently an octave has been added, a Monument that in the intentions would like to honor a historical Character of Caltagirone, Gualtiero, who was one of the three Sicilian Chiefs of Vesper, and who was beheaded by the Aragonese in 1283 in the Plan of San Giuliano.
Satirical verses, determined by the exceptional ugliness of the Monument, say that this was not the way to honor Gualtiero, but to kill him for the second time.
Oltre a queste Sette Meraviglie, ora ce n’e un’Ottava.
Si tratta di un cavallo che non ha gambe, e che nel didietro ha un tappo, in sella c’è un fantoccio con le gambe come travi, perchè sono tese, e io non prendo abbaglio.
E’ un Monumento Moderno, con il quale si vorrebbe onorare il Gran Gualtiero, ma è una caricatura senza eguali, e in questo modo Gualtiero muore per la seconda volta.
Besides these Seven Wonders, there’s now an Octave.
It is a horse that has no legs, and that in the back has a cap, in the saddle there is a puppet with the legs like beams, because they are stretched, and I do not take glare.
It is a Modern Monument, with which you would like to honor the Great Gualtiero, but it is an unparalleled caricature, and in this way Gualtiero dies for the second time.