Fontaine de la Rotonde

The Fontaine de la Rotonde features three large stone statues perched atop a central tiered basin. Built in eighteen sixty, it replaced an old gate at the entrance to the city of Aix-en-Provence. The three figures represent justice, agriculture, and the fine arts, each facing a different road leading into town. In nineteen forty-four, retreating German soldiers attempted to destroy the fountain, but a local resistance fighter named Jean Vian defused the explosive charges hidden inside the pedestal just in time.