Fontaine du Soleil - Apollo's "manhood" too controversial!

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What could be so controversial about a seven metre tall statue of Apollo in a liberal city of Nice Côte d’Azur?

The Fountain of the Sun at Place Masséna surrounded by Mercury, Earth, Saturn, Mars and Venus. By LG@SirB
The Fountain of the Sun at Place Masséna surrounded by Mercury, Earth, Saturn, Mars and Venus. By LG@SirB2988×3694 2.35 MB

According to “urban stories”, when it was First inaugurated in 1956 the four horses on top of his head resembled Renault 4CV. People accused this as nothing more than a blatant advertisement for Renault cars at the time.

Apollo with the four horses on his head LG@SirB
Apollo with the four horses on his head LG@SirB1892×2752 975 KB

However, the most controversial wasn’t the horses on his head but more to do with his "manhood"! The good conservative folks opposed to the size of his private parts, yet some liberal-minded folks thought too small! Some students took to decorating the statue’s private members as pranks. It wasn’t enough for some section of the Catholic Church (League of Feminine Virtue) because he was still stark naked! This movement had enough support to have the statue dismantled in the 1970s! But before that, the sculptor chiselled the “offending manhood” in order to please the conservatives! So afterward, instead of being called Four Horsepower it was renamed humorously by locals as The Virgin Apollo!

LG@SirB
LG@SirB2448×3264 515 KB

This Sun God was reinstated and reinstalled in 2011 back in the centre of the fountain overlooking Place Masséna. And of course a little less exposition of Apollo’s manhood!

Apollo with Mars at Fontaine du Soleil by LG@SirB
Apollo with Mars at Fontaine du Soleil by LG@SirB1960×2618 1.09 MB

(Source: Margo Lestz - a prolific blogger on “Curiousrambler”

Enjoy a little bit of the fascinating Côte d’Azur Nice ?

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Hello my dear @SirB ,

Your beautiful photos and interesting description about this fountain put me in a good mood :smiling_face::rainbow:

What wins always Is the beauty of these sculptures that each visitor may admire whatever was the controversial behind.

Thank you for sharing, once in Nice I will surely recall your nice post :blush:

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Hello @SirB ,

What an interesting story of the Fountaine du Soleil. I visited Nice a few years ago and saw the fountain as well as Place Masséna but I don’t remember the stories. Thank you for sharing them with the community.

Nice is one of my favourite cities in France. Did you visit it or you live there? I am eager to hear more about it.

Here is a photo that I took from Place Masséna in front of the infamous fountain.

Caption: A photo of Place Massena in Nice, France (Local Guide @MoniDi)
Caption: A photo of Place Massena in Nice, France (Local Guide @MoniDi)3264×2448 807 KB

P.S. I will move your post to Travel as it fits better there.

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Mille Grazie my dear friend @Giuseppe75

I’m so glad you enjoyed the post and perhaps give a different perspective when you finally get to visit Fontaine du Soleil.

Take care and see you on the flip side :blush::pray::+1:

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Hiya @MoniDi

Firstly, thank you ever so much for stopping by and for your valuable and generous comments! Really appreciate it.

I’m now more a “visitor” to Nice eventhough my parents live in Nice. I travel to Nice at least once a year (time permits) as I’m now residing in Sydney. I grew up in London (born in Paris before we moved to the UK at age 3). Came to Australia to attend university and decided to stay permanently.

SirB is a nickname for Sebastien :wink:

Oops, apologies, this ends up being an episode of Introduce Yourself, June 2019! hahaha :blush:

I’ll introduce more photos of Nice in a post near you soon.

Cheers :+1:

PS: Great shot of Place Masséna :+1::bouquet:

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Hi @SirB

Thanks for nice report.

Also for sharing your own history.

Karol

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Merci pour cette anecdote. D’origine nicoise je ne ne la connaissais pas

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