For the Bibliophiles - Book Shaped Fountains

A collection of book shaped fountains from around the World. Only those fountains in which the water flows over the books or erupts from the book are included.

Currently following fountains (listed in random order) are covered and more will be added as and when found;

1. Public Library, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
2. Gulhane Park, Istanbul, Turkey
3. Egyetem Square, Budapest, Hungary
4. Clifton M. Brakensiek Library, Bellflower, CA, USA
5. Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, Chattanooga, USA
6. Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
7. Unknown Hostel of Xiamen University, China

1. Public Library, Cincinnati, Ohio

This fountain the shape of stack of books is officially called "Amelia Valerio Weinberg Memorial Fountain". Designed by Cincinnati sculptor Michael Frasca it was dedicated in 1990 and features water cascading over a stack of ceramic tile books, representing the free flow of information and ideas through
the printed word. (source: cincinnatilibrary.org)

Image from Flickr is by OZinOH

View location in Google Maps and Street View

2. Gulhane Park, Istanbul

An unusual fountain in the shape of an open book, located in Gulhane Park, adjacent to the grounds of the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul.

Every few seconds a sheet of water gushes out from the book’s spine moving from one side to the other and creating and illusion of turning of page;

Engraved on the it's open pages are the welcome words in Turkish and English. The English text reads;

'Welcome in the flower and rose garden "Gulhane" an outer garden of Jopkapi Topkapi Palace for centuries.'

An almost identical fountain, without the text, is in Budapest. It is not known which one was the original and which one is replica.

Edit Note - August 3, 2016:  tek , Administrator of GEC Forums was kind enough to visit the park and found that this fountain was constructed about 2 years back. As the Budapest fountain was built in 2012 that fountain is the original.

Image from Flickr is by R Flores

Image from Panoramio is by Filippo Mazzoccu

View location in Google Maps.

3. Egyetem Square, Budapest, Hungary

This book shaped fountain is located in Egyetem Square in front of the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences. It was set up in 2012 and is almost identical to
the open book fountain in Gulhane Park in Istanbul. It is not known if this is original or the one in Istanbul is original.

Edit Note - August 3, 2016: tek , Administrator of GEC Forums was kind enough to visit the Istanbul park and found that, that fountain was constructed about 2 years back. As this fountain was built in 2012 it is the original.

Image from Flickr is by skittledog

A closed book sculpture is also placed near the fountain.

Image from Panoramio is by hhgygy (Thank you hhgygy for specially sharing this picture for this collection)

Following YouTube shows the page turning illusion of the fountain;

View location in Google Maps Street View

4. Clifton M. Brakensiek Library, Bellflower, CA

Image Source: Google Street View (Credits for finding the location is to krenek . Thank you Krenek.)

A clearer view of this book fountain can be seen in this Flickr image. Unfortunately the photographer has made the image download protected and it
cannot be used.

Adjacent to the fountain are some more books and a bitten apple.

Image from Flickr  is by Tyrone Beabraut

The text on the book reads;

Every garden has a Secret where magical things happen. Sprites dance there, the bells on their hats ring. If you're quiet and listen, you may be able to hear them. Let your imagination soar.

Your adventure in the Enchanted Garden begins.

View location in Google Street View

Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, Chattanooga

Image from Flickr is by Duane Tate

View location in Google Maps and Street View

Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

This fountain is located at the west entrance to the University. Not sure whether it can be categorised as Book Fountain as it seems to be at the edge of the pool. However giving it a benefit of doubt, it is being included in this collection.

Image from Panoramio is by 谢忠夫

View location in Google Maps

Somewhere in Xiamen, China

Image from Flickr is by suprules

Exact location of this fountain in couldn't be ascertained. It is located near some hostel of Xiamen University. Any suggestion about its location are welcome.

Copyright: Images from Flickr / Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners. Screen captured image from Google Earth / Google Maps and Street Views are under the copyright of Google. Actual terms of copyright/reuse is available in the source link given below each image. 

Attachments:

book-shaped-fountains.kmz (1.8 KB)

hi j, old fellow!

i fond of reading, i love books - just as your always unique collections!
btw, why not straight into UTG such an oddity?

thanks for mothercountry reference!

It was set up in 2012 and is almost identical to
 the open book fountain in Gulhane Park in Istanbul. It is not known if this is original or the one in Istanbul is original.

made me rather curious, but now feel too lazy for a try to find out. ...well, Tek? Tek! Tek, where are you?...(:


best,
g

Hi syzygy  old friend!

Good to read your comments. 

I am very much in my home town Lucknow but keep on travelling around the World thanks to GE, GM and GSV!

I had thought of making this post in  "Unique Things on the Globe" but didn't post it there as there are more than one book fountains.

As regards the originality of Budapest or the Istanbul Fountain, I tried to find the date of Istanbul fountain but couldn't find any relevant answer. Gulhane Park is definitely older but I don't know if the fountain there is a recent addition or not. If you ever find out which is original do let me know and I will edit my post.

BTW the the Budapest fountain appears to be more well known than the Istanbul fountain. Google search for "Open Book Fountain" shows mostly the Budapest fountain. I came across the Istanbul fountain by chance only and assumed it to be the Budapest fountain. However I was curious about the absence of text from some pictures and when I read "Gulhane" then I realised that it was different from the Budapest.

Jamal

>>Tek, where are you?

Here.

I had an opportunity to go to the site and asked about it. As expected, the fountain in İstanbul is not original. I could not find anyone who knows the answers to my questions but an old personnel told me it was put there two years ago and replaced another statue which also had an unknown originality. There is no record on and around it as to by whom and when it was created or built. So my conclusion is that it is an ordinary work ordered by a subcontractor in name of the İstanbul Municipality.

Curious, just one correction. In the text on it, the word is "Topkapı" and not "Jopkapı".

Thanks tek  for taking the trouble of visiting the site and enquiring about the Fountain in Topkapi Park. As this fountain was constructed about 2 years back the Budapest fountain is apparently the original.

Another thanks for pointing out the spelling mistake of Topkapi. I misread  the "T" as "J" in the decorative font used in the engraving.