The place des Quatre-Dauphins, legend and nettle tree
And also
The tops
A very old tree
On this square used to be plant a beautiful nettle tree, about 6 metres high. It was cut down because it had a rotten trunk.
The square
Place des Quatre-Dauphins ("Four dolphins' square") dates back to 1667, laid out, with Mazarin district, by bishop of Aix Michel Mazarin.
Valois and Boisgelin's city houses façades nicely frame the little square, in middle of Aix city.
The fountain
What about the fountain? It was raised in 1667, made by sculptor Jean-Claude Rambot, from Franche-Comté, Eastern France.
A legend says two pipes used to pour cold water and two others hot water... a mineral hot water that fed Sextius thermae: because Aix city was known as Aquae Sextiae, "Sextius' waters", from Roman consul Sextius who set the trend of the thermal springs here.
These very hot waters were useful for several illness. Romans knew it well and they came in Aix for that since centuries!