We have no precise information on who built this octagonal stone fountain, or when it was constructed, but it presumably dates to the first half of the 19th century, when the carriage road was widened and the Santo Spirito church destroyed to make way for the Regia Strada d’Alemagna road. On the outer sides of the fountain are a number of iron rods, and the column is linked to the basin by eight twin bars, which were generally used to rest buckets on. The sides of the fountain have carved rectangles on them and the central column supports a covered vase decorated with four mascarons that jut out from it and topped with a sphere. This fountain features the same type of column, albeit without the pod-shaped decoration on the upper part, as the one in Domegge di Cadore, dating to the late 18th century, or the fountain that once stood in the square in Calalzo di Cadore. The spindle-shaped central column was constructed, as in other fountains in the Cadore, by placing curved pieces on top of one another and crowned with a sculpted top, which could generally be removed to inspect the workings of the fountain.
Along the Roman road that leads towards the parish church, there is another more modest octagonal fountain, dated 1880, with a simple decoration featuring a pine cone shape atop the central column.

From Tai di Cadore in the direction of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the fountain is on the bend at the side of the SS51 Alemagna road, in Borgata Costa, opposite the fifteenth-century Palazzo Piloni - Costantini.

ACCESSIBLE: yes; may be visited
MUNICIPALITY: Valle di Cadore
PLACE: Borgata Costa
GEOGRAPHICAL COORDINATES: X 1755738 – Y 5145558
PROVINCE: Belluno

FILE COMPILED BY: Lonzi

Vallesina, a neighbourhood of Valle di Cadore, grew up around the numerous mills and workshops powered by the waters of the torrent of the same name: on the road to Cortina d’Ampezzo, on the right, under the bridge across the cycle path, we can still see the wheel that belonged to the nineteenth-century sawmill, which has now been converted into a private home.

I. Da Deppo, E. Favero, L’acqua e le sue forme. Lavatoi e fontane del Centro Cadore, Belluno, 2003