It has the shape of a half-sunken boat with water flowing through its sides. The fountain was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII and completed in 1627 by Pietro Bernini and his son Gianlorenzo Bernini. The form of the fountain was chosen to commemorate the flood that inundated the Spanish Square in 1598. There is a legend that during the flood, a lone boat made its way from the Tiber to the Plaza de España, where it settled after the waters receded.
