The fountains built in the sixteenth century have very different characteristics from those of previous centuries, from an architectural point of view and from the point of view of their location within the urban space.
If medieval fountains were built along the street and inserted under the arches of buildings, sixteenth-century fountains were added to an already established urban context and had to be adapted to their surroundings.
Thus the fountain of St. Pancras, designed in 1549 by Pietro and Leonardo Isabello, was placed in the center of a square that already had its own geometric identity.
For this reason, too, its base evokes its regular square shape.