Buckingham Fountain

Buckingham Fountain in Chicago is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful in the world. This opinion may be subjective, but the fact that it occupies an honorable place in the top ten of the largest fountains in the world – no one will argue with this.

The construction of the fountain became a kind of monument to Clarence Buckingham, a famous Chicago collector and philanthropist, the former director of the Art Institute of Chicago. The fountain was commissioned by his sister, Kate Buckingham, who also had a genuine passion for art and collecting. As an enlightened lady and familiar with the architecture of the Old World, Kate chose as a model the central fountain near the palace of Louis XIV in Versailles. The construction was carried out on a truly American scale: the size of the “original source” was significantly exceeded. The result was a pool with a diameter of about 85 meters, in the center of which 7.5 meters above the water level rises three-tier composition of pink marble. The four pairs of horses surrounding the central part are associated with the four states whose shores are washed by Lake Michigan: Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.

134 water jets emit 65,000 liters of water every minute. The powerful central stream rises to a height of 42-46 meters. In the evening, the fountain is illuminated with 840 lamps. From about mid-April to mid-October visitors to the Grand Park in the evening waiting for a magnificent water-light extravaganza.