The Medicis Fountain located in the Luxembourg Gardens was originally built in the 1630’s at the request of Marie de Medicis (an Italian princess who married Henri IV). It was moved about 100 feet closer to the Luxembourg Gardens to accommodate the widening of the street in 1862 (because of our friend, Baron Haussmann’s improvements). The statue group in the center, “Polyphemus Surprising Acis and Galatea” by the French sculptor Auguste Ottin (1866), was not originally part of the fountain but was added at the time of the relocation.
It’s a gorgeous, peaceful spot in the gardens away from the activity in front of the Luxembourg Palace, which today is the house of the French Senate. The palace, also originally built for Marie de Medicis in the style of her former Italian Medici palace, was of course magnificent and included 24 Rubens' paintings (now in the Louvre). Marie was not only the mother of King Louis XIII but mother to a Spanish and an English queen as well as grandmother to Louis XIV. She was finally exiled in 1630 after her involvement in different intrigues and died in Cologne in 1642.
