An octagon of white Zandobbio marble towers in the center of Piazza Vecchia, the most famous and popular square in the Upper Town.
Around the basin are statues of sphinxes, snakes and lions, guarding the fountain.
The monument, donated to Bergamo by Podestà Alvise Contarini in 1780, was not always there where you see it now: for about 30 years it was dismantled to make way for a statue of Garibaldi, later moved to the lower city in the early 1900s.
A small curiosity: now the Contarini Fountain has mainly an aesthetic function, but as soon as it was built it served as a water supply for domestic use and to combat drought.