Apollo Fountain

Horses pull the chariot forward while Apollo rises above the basin. The sun god was the emblem chosen by Louis XIV. The sculptor Jean-Baptiste Tuby made this lead group from designs by the painter Charles Le Brun between 1668 and 1670. It was brought to Versailles, installed and gilded in the following years. A pool had already occupied this position under Louis XIII, when it was called the Lake of the Swans. The later sculpture gave that water feature a new royal subject. The group represents Apollo beginning his daily journey across the sky. On the ground, the basin marks the end of the Great Lawn before the paths reach the Grand Canal.