38 Of The World's Most Amazing Fountains

Designed by David Barber and Bill Burgess, The Julie Penrose fountain at America The Beautiful park is an open loop of silvery-colored steel panels outfitted with 366 water jets that line the interior contours of the form. It sits on a hidden turntable so that it's able to rotate every fifteen minutes. The fountain represents the life-giving movement of water between the atmosphere and the earth. Completed in 2007, the piece weighs 24 tons and is the size of a four-storey building. (source: coloradosprings.gov, westword)

The magic fountain of Montjuïc (Font màgica de Montjuïc) is a spectacular display of colour, light, motion, music and water acrobatics located at the head of Avinguda Maria Cristina in the Montjuïc neighborhood of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Designed by Carles Buïgas, the fountain is situated below the Palau Nacional on the Montjuïc mountain and near the Plaça d'Espanya and Poble Espanyol de Barcelona. The fountain, like most of the surrounding developments, was constructed for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. (source: wikipedia, barcelona-tourist-guide)

The Unisphere is a spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth, located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens, New York City. The sphere, which measures 120 feet (37 m) in diameter, was commissioned as part of the 1964 New York World's Fair. The Unisphere is one of the borough's most iconic and enduring symbols. Commissioned to celebrate the beginning of the space age, the Unisphere was conceived and constructed as the theme symbol of the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair. The theme of the World's Fair was "Peace Through Understanding" and the Unisphere represented the theme of global interdependence. It was dedicated to "Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe". (source: wikipedia)

The Fountain of Wealth is located in one of Singapore's largest shopping malls, Suntec City, and was constructed in 1995. A symbol of wealth and life, the Fountain Of Wealth is recognized since 1998 by the Guinness Book Of World Records as the World's Largest Fountain. The bronze ring of the fountain is designed based on the Hindu Mandala, meaning universe, and is a symbolic representation of the oneness in spirit and unity and further symbolizes the equality and harmony of all races and religions in Singapore.

The fountain is made of silicon bronze, and consists of a circular ring with a circumference of 66 metres supported on four large slanted columns. It occupies an area of 1683.07 square metres, with a height of 13.8m. The sand cast silicon bronze, including all formwork and patternmaking was designed,manufactured and installed by DCG Design and Meridian Projects (from Melbourne Australia) in 1995. The base area of the fountain is 1,683 square metres. In the design plan of Suntec City, where the five tower blocks represent the fingers and thumb of a left hand emerging from the ground, the fountain forms the palm of the hand.

Apart from the jets of water cascading down from the ring, the centre of the fountain also boasts a medium-sized water screen, used for nightly laser shows, as well as a large jet of water which is occasionally turned on, and spouts higher than the top of the ring. (source: wikipedia)

The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. The Oval Fountain was one of the first fountains in the garden, and among the most famous. It was designed by Pirro Ligorio, the architect of the villa, as a water theater, spraying water in variety of forms. It was begun in 1565 and finished in 1570. (source: wikipedia)

La Joute ("the joust") (1969) is a public sculptural installation by Quebec artist Jean-Paul Riopelle, a member of the Automatiste movement. It is currently located in Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle in the Quartier international de Montréal.

The ensemble of bronze sculptures contains a central fountain surrounded by a number of freestanding abstract animal and human figures inside and outside the fountain basin. The fountain operates on a kinetic sequence that takes about 32 minutes to complete. It begins a few minutes before the half-hour, every hour from 7 to 11 p.m. during the summer. The sequence starts when the fountain jet expands to form a dome over the sculptures. Then at the back end of the park the grates on the ground start to mist. The 12 grates each mist, one after the other in sequence, taking about 90 seconds to sequence from one to another until they reach the fountain. After about 18 minutes, machines inside the fountain start to produce a particularly dense cloud. The fountain jet then turns into a dribble. On the hour, nozzles in a ring surrounding the central sculpture within the basin shoot up jets of natural gas through the water; these are lit by flame sources installed in the daises of some of the sculptures, producing a dramatic ring of flame. The flame lasts for about seven minutes. The fountain itself stops. The misting stops, and then the fire is "doused" by the fountain which has restarted. The mist sequence, without the fire in the fountain, occurs every hour throughout the day. (source: wikipedia)

The Pineapple Fountain is a focal point of the Charleston Waterfront Park, which people have been enjoying since it opened in 1990. Pineapple motifs are common in Charleston because they represent hospitality. (source: sciway.net)

King Fahd's Fountain, also known as the Jeddah Fountain, is a fountain in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the tallest of its type in the world. The fountain was donated to the city of Jeddah by King Fahd, hence its name. It was constructed between 1980 and 1983 and was launched in 1985.

Located on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, the fountain jets water to a maximum height, according to different sources, of anywhere between 260 metres (853 ft) and 312 m (1,024 ft) above the Red Sea. The fountain is visible throughout the vicinity of Jeddah. The water it ejects can reach a speed of 375 km/h (233 mph), and it uses saltwater taken from the Red Sea instead of freshwater. Over 500 spotlights illuminate the fountain at night. (source: wikipedia)

The Stravinsky Fountain (French: La Fontaine Stravinsky) is a whimsical public fountain ornamented with sixteen works of sculpture, moving and spraying water, representing the works of composer Igor Stravinsky. It was created in 1983 by sculptors Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle, and is located on Place Stravinsky, next to the Centre Pompidou, in Paris. (source: wikipedia)

Bellagio is a resort, luxury hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It's well known for the Fountains of Bellagio, a vast, choreographed water feature with performances set to light and music. The fountains are set in a 8-acre (3.2 ha) manmade lake and it is estimated that the fountains cost $40 million to build. The fountains were created by WET, a design firm specializing in inventive fountains and architectural water features. This fountain was the largest fountain in the world when it first opened but then surpassed by Dubai Bay fountain and Okada Manila in 2010 and 2017 respectively. (source: wikipedia)

Built in the 1980s, elevated on a circular pier on the Corniche near the foot of Muroor, the fountain looked like something from The Flintstones, "a page right out of history". Also known as Al Shallal (waterfall in Arabic), the stone-paved fountain, surrounded by tiered gardens with flights of stairs leading up to its base, was lit up at night to give the cascading water the appearance of lava. Abu Dhabi’s Volcano Fountain wasn’t alone in the world: one was built at Honolulu International Airport in the 1960s and a more grandiose version entertains crowds at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas. But Abu Dhabi’s still takes a place of honour in online lists of the world’s most beautiful fountains, along with the Trevi Fountain in Rome and the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas. It was demolished in 2004 as part of a redevelopment initiative. (source: thenational.ae)

On 21 June 2011 the Republic of Macedonia erected the largest statue of Alexander the Great in the world.  As cranes lifted the bronze statue on top of the pedestal, hundreds of Macedonians sang the national anthem and other patriotic songs, waving flags and shouting "Macedonia!"  The equestrian bronze statue of the Macedonian king riding his horse Bucephalus is 14.5 m (47.6 ft) tall and weighs 48 tons.  Alexander is depicted as brandishing his sward high in his right hand as if he had just given the command for an attack. His left hand is restraining his rearing horse Bucephalus.  Symbolically he is facing east toward Asia, in direction of Persia.  The massive bronze rests on top of a 10 m (32.8 ft) tall cylindrical column pedestal which is a centerpiece of a large circular fountain. The complete structure rises 24.5 meters (80 feet) into the skyline and dominates the Skopje downtown square "Macedonia". (source: alexanderthegreatfountain)

Vaillancourt Fountain, sometimes called Quebec libre!, is a large fountain located in Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, designed by the Québécois artist Armand Vaillancourt in 1971. It is about 40 feet (12 m) high and is constructed out of precast concrete square tubes. Long considered controversial because of its stark, modernist appearance, there have been several unsuccessful proposals to demolish the fountain over the years. It was the site of a free concert by U2 in 1987, when lead singer Bono spray painted graffiti on the fountain and was both praised and criticized for the action. (source: wikipedia)

The Dubai Fountain is the world's second largest choreographed fountain system set on the 30-acre manmade Burj Khalifa Lake, at the center of the Downtown Dubai development in Dubai, United Arab Emirates next to "The Fountain" Okada in Manila, Philippines. It was designed by WET Design, the California-based company responsible for the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel Lake in Las Vegas. Illuminated by 6,600 lights and 25 colored projectors, it is 275 m (902 ft) long and shoots water up to 500 ft (152.4 m) into the air accompanied by a range of classical to contemporary Arabic and world music. It was built at a cost of AED 800 million (USD $218 million). The fountain was officially inaugurated on 8 May 2009 along with the official opening ceremony of The Dubai Mall. On 2 January 2010 the length of Dubai fountains was increased to 275 m (902.2 ft). (source: wikipedia)

Located at the foot of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Music Fountain Square of Big Wild Goose Pagoda covers 168,000 square meters, with the pagoda being the central axis from south to north. It is made up of music fountains, cultural square, garden landscapes, tourist and commercial facilities and is an important part of the Xi'an Cultural Area of Tang Dynasty. As the highlight of the square, the 1024 music fountains controlled by water pumps and transducers are set on the central axis of the northern square in a shape of "T". When the fountains work in the evening, the artificial streams flowing from the ground make the square a world of colorful water with the embellishment of all kinds of light sources. (source: visitourchina)

Foshan, a city in central Guangdong province in China, has one of the strangest pieces of public art - a fountain built out of 10,000 recycled toilets, sinks and urinals covering a wall 100 meters long and almost 5 meters high. The fountain/waterfall was originally designed for the 2009 Foshan Pottery and Porcelain Festival, a porcelain product tradeshow, before being installed as a permanent piece of public art. It is just one of the many impressive ceramic sculptures residing in Shiwan Park.

The “art piece” was created by Chinese artist Shu Yong, who along with his team, spent 2 months installing the toilets. The toilets are a mixture of unwanted factory seconds and ones donated by foreigners and locals. All the toilets and urinals are actually connected to a tap so that they could be flushed. The installation is flooded periodically, creating a cascading waterfall to the amusement of the onlookers. (amusingplanet)

Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park. Designed by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it cost $17 million and opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a black granite reflecting pool placed between a pair of glass brick towers. The towers are 50 feet (15.2 m) tall, and they use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to display digital videos on their inward faces. Plensa used the faces of 1,000 "ordinary" Chicagoans for the fountain. The School of the Art Institute found subjects by calling community groups around the city and asking for volunteers. They were videotaped sitting in an adjustable dentist chair. (source: wikipedia, dnainfo)

A fountain sculpture by artist Klaus Weber entitled 'The Big Giving' was displayed on the South Bank in central London between 2006 and 2007. Half a dozen sculptures made of stone and industrial waste featured water spurting in depictions of vomiting, sweating, crying, urinating and spitting. Maybe that explains why it was only temporary!