Fontaine de Saint Nicolas

Saint Nicholas Parish Church was built on the Rocher in the thirteenth century. In 1500, the large altarpiece depicting the saint to whom the church was dedicated, painted by Louis Brea, was installed in the apse. The religious building was destroyed in 1874, and replaced by Monaco Cathedral. To perpetuate the memory of the worship of Saint Nicholas on the Rocher, the National Committee for Monegasque Traditions decided to erect a monument to the patron saint.
The fountain, topped by the statue sculpted by Bassignani, was officially unveiled on 6 December 1930 in the presence of the Minister of State and the Mayor of Monaco. Following a mass in the Cathedral, a procession went to Place Saint Nicholas, where Monseigneur Clément, the Bishop of Monaco, blessed the statue. The artist depicted the Bishop of Myra wearing a mitre on his head and carrying an episcopal crosier, as well as three children sitting in a tub. The work serves as a reminder that Saint Nicholas is the protector of children.

Umberto Bassignani was born on 29 August 1878 in Fivizzano in Tuscany. His father, a decorator, introduced him to artistic techniques. He studied sculpture in Genoa and became a student of the famous Leonardo Bistolfi. To reach a wider clientele, he moved to Monaco and, on 8 May 1907, opened at studio at 13 Boulevard Charles III. He produced dozens of funerary monuments, which can still be seen in Monaco Cemetery, including a high relief which won a gold medal at the Turin World’s Fair in 1909. Bassignani’s works were highly sought after, with commissions coming in from Nice, Peille, Aurillac, Paris, Geneva and Rostov-on-Don. He created the Vazzola War Memorial in Veneto and the memorial in his home town of Fivizzano. He gave up his Monaco studio in 1939 and returned to Lerici in Italy, where he died on 21 January 1944 just before the end of the war.