Buza Péter: Spring and Fountains - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)
In the early 1950s some archaeologists were once carefully unearthing the broken ruins of the Roman Proconsul's palace. In the middle of this formerly impressive building they found a curiously shaped column. The column was identified, in a report published in 1955 by János Szilágyi, the archaeologist in charge of the works, as having been a part of a fountain. Later the team found every piece that had once belonged to the fountain, including the basin and a dolphin which used to bathe in the water jet which spouted up. It was no surprise that this highly decorative item should belong to the palace. The Romans had a great liking for water, and its sophisticated use was central to their civilization. There is a fountain decorated with great care on every street corner of Aquincum, the Roman civilian town, the ruins of which stand in Budapest’s 3rd district. The most frequently used ornament was a medusa-head whose job it was to scare off any demons which threatened the gift of the gods-the life- giving water offered by a dolphin or a lion. The reconstructed ornamental fountain with dolphins in the Roman Proconsuls palace 3
