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

fountain in Terézváros was given its statue. The oldest such specimen made with similar purposes surviving in Buda, the above-mentioned Pallas Athena by Carlo Adami, predates the one in Ferenciek tere by fifty years.)

This is how the journal Honműuész sums up the essential information on the work:

In the market place named after the Franciscan order in Pest, the public fountain, which has hithertofore been surrounded by a mere plank hut has now been given a decorative new shape paid for by the municipality of Pest This change has been all the more desirable as the well’s earlier appearance only defaced the square. This has been the first well in a Pest square to be beautified by a sculptural work of art. It is especially pleasing to the eye as no manner of sculpture or memorial column adorns the larger squares of our city. The municipality therefore can expect gratitude on two accounts for having ordered the decorative and costly transformation of the well, by which it has made the square more interesting as well as more beautiful. No doubt, we can expect that in time the same municipality, which pays increasing attention to the prettification of the city each day, will have similarly beautiful public wells built elsewhere, for example on the square of the German Theatre (where there is already an ordinary well). The obelisk for the above-mentioned fountain in the Franciscan market was made by master stone mason József Fest The maker of the two Naiads standing on top of the obelisk is Ferenc Uhrl. These figures are each seven feet tall, and with the urn and the plinth their height reaches ten feet, whereas the entire structure is three fathoms and three feet tall. The Naiads have been carved of stone from Pest, whereas the rest of the fountain is made of Csabánka stone.

With a few added facts the story can be easily rounded off. The first of these is the suggestion made in 1828 that the battered hut should be replaced with a stone fountain decorated with a sculpture. The second fact is that the public competition was not originally won by Clhrl but by Lőrinc Dunaiszky, possibly the greatest sculptor of the period, with his Moses composition. However, at that time marble rather than stone was meant to be used, but the necessary amount of money was eventually unavailable.

On an enlarged stone slab there is a rectangular basis with a tympanon on each of the four sides. On two sides there are two shells leaning against this base with water spouts above. There is a prism set upon this base which, in turn, supports the sculpture. On the two dominant sides there are harpoons

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