The garden fountains at the Versailles palace in France. Focus on the Latona fountain

Considered a symbol of wealthy noble life in the centuries from the sixteenth to the nineteenth, splendid royal palaces can still be admired today in several states of Europe. They were created by kings to show off the magnificence of their houses and their state; they were inserted in extensive and rich gardens, with green avenues, furnished with monumental statues and fountains. Thus elegant and valuable urban structures were configured. The paper proposes an interesting tourist-cultural itinerary, a virtual walk through the gardens of the Palace of Versailles. The characteristics of the main fountains are illustrated by observing them in correspondence with the rest areas surrounded by green spaces. Particular attention is paid to the monumental Fountain of Latonia, considered one of the most spectacular, examined from multiple points of view. Furthermore, a specific cognitive framework, derived from field investigations and laboratory analyses on representative materials samples, is proposed which allows us to deduce useful attributes for the valorisation of the monument, but also significant elements for effective and informed maintenance, conservation and restoration measures. The study approach follows the process of a diagnostic plan, starting from the history of the monument, with reference to the environmental and territorial context in which it is inserted, through the description of the morphological and aesthetic characteristics, to achieve the analysis of biological degradation of the constituent materials, identified as the most widespread and evident. To this end, diagnostic investigations were carried out on samples of material taken in situ and characterized by the presence of biological patina. The non-invasive survey was previously authorized by the competent authorities. Morphological and chemical analyses were carried out on these samples at a micrometric scale, using specific laboratory instruments such as scanning electron microscope (SEM/EDS) which provide data of fundamental importance, allowing the acquisition of valuable information for understanding the state of conservation of the monument and to identify the most appropriate intervention choices in a more conscious way.