Restoration of Aging Neptune Fountain to Begin

The aging Neptune Fountain at Malaga Cove Plaza in Palos Verdes Estates will get a much-needed face-lift as soon as a restoration of the surrounding plaza has been completed.

The City Council has approved spending $101,578 to refurbish the 19th-century white marble fountain at the center of the plaza. The fountain is a replica of the famous bronze Neptune fountain in Bologna, Italy, and was part of an old villa in Venice for more than a century before it was donated to the city in 1930.

Over the years the fountain has been vandalized, nearby trees have died and the concrete base under the statue has cracked. Residents formed the Malaga Cove Plaza Beautification Project in 1987 and raised more than $225,000 for the plaza project, scheduled for completion next week.

City Manager Jim Hendrickson said the restoration of the statue is expected to take about 10 months. The fountain is decorated with dolphins, sea shells and a mermaid, and topped by the heroic figure of Neptune, the god of the sea, who looks out at the ocean.

Hendrickson said the restoration of the Neptune Fountain is the final phase of a six-year effort to restore the deteriorated statue, the city’s most famous landmark.

The fountain’s image, on city stationary and the city pin, “symbolizes what this city is all about,� Hendrickson said.