Buza Péter: Spring and Fountains - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)

lion-decorated ornamental fountain. Standing in a public square which has always been of central importance, its forms reflect the tastes of the old city. Right here, in “the square of the German theatre”, there was a well famous for its fine water in the early 19th century. The authorities of the time promised to encase it with something similar in beauty to the Fountain of the Naiads, and to decorate it with sculptures. But the public had to wait for the promise to be kept.

Another witness to the revival of nineteenth century fashions is the Hermes Fountain, an old statue in a recently built stone frame standing by no. 16 Váci utca. This likeness of the antique god stood, from its birth in the mid-19th century, in a niche in the facade of no. 6 Duna utca until the block was pulled down in the last century. Hermes was posted to several spots after that, until it was discovered by László Wild, who placed it in the fountain he composed in 1983.

The fountains built recently in Budapest have mixed these older stylistic features and fashions. However, there are a few

Hermes in Váci utca

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