St Bernards Well was open!

You may recall I mentioned the St Bernard's Well in June: http://rmontalban.blogspot.com/2010/06/wonder-of-woman.html - today it was open!

I have never seen inside the building until today and it was beautiful. Opened in the year the French Revolution started, this humble well has the most impressive architecture both inside and out.

The entrance to the well is underneath the statue of Hygena

Inside it is beautifully tiled

And centre stage is a marble font with a gilt pump and Lion's head spout.

As you can see it still works

Above it is a stunning blue ceiling, Roman. Apparently Italian mosaicists were brought over from Italy and used to build it.

As the well was originally manned, there was a fire place inside too to keep the well keeper warm.

So Sunday had another first, getting to see inside the St Bernard's Well, and the Stockbridge Duck Race!

So being inside this well with all its history, silence and days gone by footfall - I mean just thinking this was built at the same time as the French Revolution started with what must have been going on in France and here is this beautiful architecture being built for everyone to share and use the clean water it provided - really makes you think about the bigger picture of life now and that of times gone by and what is going on somewhere else at this very same time now - wow indeed!