Fontana di Bacco e Arianna

One cannot think of the historic center of Thiene and the location of the town hall without recalling the beautiful fountain of Bacchus and Ariadne, gifted by Count Guardino Colleoni in 1911 and the work of Egisto Caldana (1887-1961), a skilled sculptor from Vicenza.
The artwork is of interest not only for its protagonists, inspired by the myth of Bacchus, but also for the inscriptions contained within four shields of the perimeter ring.
In one of these, it reads: “Haec Poti Flammas – Temperet Unda Meri,” which means “This water that ripples may temper the ardor of the wine drunk.” The phrase exhibits a vaguely jovial character, between the harmless warning to wine drinkers and the learned amusement in the citation of Horace. Ultimately, the fountain serves both as a reminder of moderation in drinking and a celebration of the hydraulic technology brought by the new aqueduct inaugurated precisely in 1911.