Historic public fountain of San Felice Circeo, for a long time an essential source of water for the village, in an area where freshwater springs were not plentiful. Today the fountain is a characteristic feature of the local townscape and a symbol of daily life in the historic centre before the arrival of the modern aqueduct.
Fontana Copella takes its name from the word “coppella”, a small vessel for collecting water. The women of the town came down to Fontana Copella to wash clothes and fetch water. In 1931 Baron Aguet had it restored and enlarged, as the marble inscription records, adding a drinking trough, a wash-house and a slaughterhouse. In the 18th century there was a small chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony near this fountain, although, as Lanzuisi writes, the local name is rather of secular inspiration, since this area was better known as Fuesse Cupidde (Cupid’s ditch).
