Paris Wallace Fountains in France
The remarkable Paris Wallace Fountains in France are named after Richard Wallace who designed and paid for these drinking water fountains that are dotted all over the city of Paris and the majority of these monuments are still in use today.
About the Paris Wallace Fountains in France
Even though the Paris Wallace Fountains in France are now part of the history of Paris and are classified as historical Paris monuments, they have never actually been classified as historical monuments and many have been completely transformed in their colours.
And although most people take drinking water for granted, when you look back at the history of the Wallace Fountains, these were a much needed addition for the city, especially for the poor that could not afford the water prices after the Franco-Prussian war and the Paris Commune.
Yet these Paris Wallace Fountains in France still remain in use for not just the poor or homeless, but for anyone wanting to refresh themselves quickly whilst walking around, whether you are a tourist on holiday in Paris or are permanently living and working in this incredible city.
However, even though there are still many Paris Wallace Fountains in France to be discovered, the Applied Model by Richard Wallace, which was to be placed on the side of buildings like hospitals, never truly got utilised to that extent, even though it was a far more reasonable cost to produce and install.
And in fact there is only one Applied Model Wallace Fountain still remaining in Paris, which is located in the 5th Arrondissement by Rue Cuvier.
But after the success of the large model fountains, a smaller push button design was also produced that was commissioned by the city of Paris and this was utilised far more so than the earlier models, and are found inside, and near many Paris parks.
And then there was a fourth style produced called the Colonnade model, yet there are only two that remain out of the thirty originally made, one of which is located at the Place Pierre Demours, but it is the large model Wallace fountains that you can still discover more of today.
However, when it comes to be able to use these fountains in Paris, because of the risk of freezing during the winter months that can damage the workings, the Paris Wallace Fountains in France are only operational from approximately mid March through to mid November and are completely shut off at all other times.
About the large model Wallace Fountains
The Large Model Wallace Fountain was designed by Richard Wallace himself, but the sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg put the finishing touches to the final design and was actually inspire by the Fontaine des Innocents Fountain.
And these Paris Wallace Fountains in France have four caryatids of women depicting kindness, simplicity, charity and sobriety, with their arms supporting a pointed dome decorated with dolphins and this sits on a stone foundation.
And standing at a height of approximately 2.7 metres the water comes from the centre of the dome and falls down into a basin protected by a grille and originally these Paris Wallace Fountains in France also had drinking cups attached to the fountains, but these were eventually removed in 1952 for hygiene reasons.
There are actually over sixty of these Paris Wallace Fountains dotted all over the city in virtually every Arrondissement such as the Square Chautemps in the 3rd arrondissement, the Place Maubert in the 5th, the Place Saint-Sulpice and another at a quay in the 6th by the Pont Neuf, which is the oldest bridge in Paris.
Then you can find one by the Avenue des Champs Elysees, another at the Place de Budapest in the 9th arrondissement and at the Place Jacques Bonsergent in the 10th. There is one at the Place Denfert-Rochereau in the 14th, at Place Henri Rollet in the 15th, another at the Place des Abbesses in the 18th arrondissement and one at the Place Edith Piaf in the 20th.
This is just a taster and there are of course additional Paris Wallace fountains around the city, but if you would like to find the exact locations of these along with others, you can take a look at our GPS location map of free Paris drinking water fountains, which also shows many of the newer and more unique ones, which even includes free sparkling water fountains for those of you that would rather have a fizzy option.
Yet as you can tell from the above, there are many Paris Wallace Fountains in France dotted around and some of them are even very brightly coloured, which makes them stand out even more, and some look more ornate than others, but these are now just one of the many types of water fountains and historical Paris monuments that you can discover around this remarkable city.
