Fontaine Wallace
Fontaine Wallace is a public drinking fountain in Paris, where cast iron turns everyday water into public art. Charles-Auguste Lebourg designed its late nineteenth-century form with four caryatids, female figures that support a dome above the concealed basin.
Sir Richard Wallace commissioned these fountains after the Franco-Prussian War to provide free drinking water across the city. The first appeared in Paris in 1871, and plans called for one hundred, while about forty remain in operation. Mass production made the design accessible to the public, joining Victorian industry with urban decoration.
Look closely at the structure: dragon-scale patterns cover the dome, while dolphins decorate the pedestal beneath it. The four figures embody simplicity, kindness, temperance and charity, giving a practical street fixture a clear visual language.
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The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Paris. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.