When fountains originated, they were practical structures providing water for drinking and bathing, and relying on gravity to bring the water down to a container, natural or constructed, within reach of the thirsty, hot or dirty people and animals.
Over the centuries, fountains have developed technically and artistically, and there are many memorable ones around the world. Pumps have been added to fire the water into the air, lights have been added to provide colour and music has been added to emphasis and enhance the fountains’ features.
Bellagio Fountains, Las Vegas, Feb 2015
In Europe one of the best known dancing fountains is the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc. This famous, colourful water display was built in 1929 but suffered damage during the Civil War and was not renovated until 1955. In the 1980s it was given some dancing lessons and it later received a major facelift in preparation for Barcelona’s hosting of the Olympics in 1992.
View down to Magic Fountain of Montjuïc, Barcelona, summer 2015
In Budapest, there is a very lively fountain that is believed to be trying to compete with Barcelona’s Magic Fountain.
In a massive renovation and enlargement in 2013, the water was trained to dance to a wider variety of music. The playlist now contains popular music as well as classical, and includes pieces with local relevance, such as the Blue Danube Waltz and George Ezra’s Budapest.
Copyright Debbie Smyth, 21 June 2016
Part of Fun Foto Challenge
Travel with Intent 
The Magic Fountain pic from Barcelona is really amazing. Barcelona is overall amazing place. I have seen fountain in Budapest and while being great and a must see tourist attraction it needs more upgrades to compete with Barcelona one.
Great post!
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Thanks Laura
I agree. The Budapest display was great fun, but Barcelona’s has something more sophisticated and awe inspiring
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That is one impressive fountain.
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I do love a good dancing fountain and that second view is a wonderful one, too.
janet
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Such great fountains for this week. I like your last one the best. 😀
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It was fun, such a good selection of music. It rained on me but I still enjoyed it
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Fountains make me smile.
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Yes, they dance very happily!
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A la claire fontaine m’en allant promener…
😉
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would have been good musical accompaniment for my post!
On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 11:47 PM, Travel with Intent wrote:
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It is a very old, traditional french song. 16th century maybe? It is the first french song I remember learning. “Chante, rossignol, chante, toi qui as le coeur gai…”
A lovely song on all counts: lyrics, rhythm, music. 🙂
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