The Latona Fountain

Once you're in the gardens, and once you've passed the great stairs, you'll see the Latona fountain. It is one of the most interesting of them all.

Latona fountain, as seen from the stairs (photo RMN)

If you're familiar with Greek and Roman mythology, you might know the story behind this sculputre. On top, we can see a woman, Latona, with two children at her feet. These two are Apollo and Diane the twin gods Latona had with Jupiter. Juno, Jupiter's wife, forced her to exile in Minor Asia. When she arrived, Latona was rejected by the local peasants, who hated her, obeying Juno's orders. Latona implored Jupiter to help her and their children, the all-mighty god transform all of the peasants into frogs and toads. We can see the peasants under Latona here, some of them are completely transformed, but some are still half human-half toad.

This magnificient sculpture was made by the Marsy brothers, who worked almost all their life to work in Versailles for Louis XIV.

Currently, the fountain is in restoration, and to compensate, the Palace made several videos, explaining why this restoration was necessary to the fountain. You can watch more on their YouTube channel.

They also put a website online, to follow the restoration works: http://latone.chateauversailles.fr/