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Pious the Ninth Mastai Ferretti (1846-1878) built this fountain in 1869 to commemorate the excavations that under the supervision of the archaeologist Pietro Ercole Visconti brought the docks of the ancient river port (Emporium) to light. The water flows in a pond consisting of a Roman sarcophagus that receives water from a lion head. The structure leans against a brick wall surmounted by a Latin epigraph and by the pope’s coat of arms with two lions rampant.