It was built on the project of the Roman engineer Giuseppe Olivieri and replaced the old fountain dating back to 1616, built underneath Palazzo Borghese (Borghese Palace). The opening ceremony took place on 6th October 1889 when the new aqueduct, bringing water to the residential area from the Plateau of Doganella, had been completed. The work took eight years and was extremely difficult during which many men lost their lives from the explosives used to shatter the rock. In memory of the miners, it was decided to erect a monumental fountain rather than a simple basin fountain to collect the water.

During the Second World War the people of Marino painted the bronze statue white making it look like marble or chalk to stop the Germans from stealing it to make bomb devices as they often did: as you can see, the manoeuver fortunately worked.