The Ardea Purpurea fountain in Ravenna turns twenty, even if the project, in reality, turns 25. The one in Piazza della Resistenza, the work of the Ravenna mosaicist Marco Bravura, who is also responsible for other mosaic fountains in Romagna, is built in 2004. In 1999, however, the artist in Beirut, Lebanon, had created a smaller one, as a symbol of the city’s rebirth from the rubble of war. Ardea Purpurea is in fact one of the names used to indicate the Arabian Phoenix. It is an architectural structure composed of two large spiral wings and inspired by the Arabian Phoenix, the mythical bird which, surrounded by fire, is always reborn from its ashes. The fountain, and in particular its decentralized position, has often been debated in the city. In fact, many have asked several times in the past for it to be moved to a central area. Or at least that the area in which it is located was recovered so as to make the most of the work.
The Ravenna fountain is 12 meters high, has a shape similar to DNA helices, and is covered in many iridescent tiles, in a play of lights and reflections that is enhanced by the sprays of water that rise and fall. It is periodically subjected to cleaning operations to remove the limestone that forms on the surface. In 2019, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the project, the fountain was subjected to an extraordinary cleaning due to limestone encrustations and the presence of moss and mold on the surfaces exposed to the air; on the same occasion, some small restorations of the mosaic parts and micro-lesions of the external facings were also carried out, as well as interventions on the color of the basin. Lastly, an additional filter was installed to reduce the presence of limescale in the water.
