Ateneo Scienze Lettere e Arti ---

The building that has housed the Ateneo di Scienze, Lettere e Arti since 1818 for over a century was previously used as a lapidarium (it collected excavation materials) and certainly did not fear humidity: it stood above the Fontanone Visconteo, a reservoir dating back to 1342 with a capacity of no less than 22,000 hectoliters, fed by the aqueduct of the Vasi della Castagneta and which for several centuries was used to draw water and as a reserve in case of siege. The nearby piazza Mercato del pesce testifies that the place was dedicated to commerce thanks precisely to the availability of water from the Fontanone; consider that the mechanism of the well was built with such precision that even today it is possible to operate the lever that pumped water from the cistern!