Flora Fountain (now known as Hutatma Chowk) is a stone fountain situated in Fort business district in the heart of South Mumbai, Mumbai, India. Flora Fountain was built in 1864. The fountain depicts the Roman goddess Flora. It is now a heritage structure. It was built at a total cost of Rs 47,000, a princely sum in those days.
It was erected by the Agri-Horticultural society of Western India out of a donation of Rs 20,000 by Cursetjee Fardoonjee Parekh. It is sculpted in imported Portland stone. However it wears a white coat of oil paint today.
Flora Fountain originally meant to be named after Sir Bartle Frčre, then governor of Bombay. However, the name was changed before the fountain was unveiled. It stood at the earstwhile center of town.
The fountain stands exactly to the point where the original Church Gate of Bombay Fort stood. From Flora fountain, distances to other parts of the city are measured. Hence it is considered as the 0thkilometre.
Currently the area is named Hutatma Chowk along with a statue of freedom fighters and an eternal flame to go alongside it.
Early fountains depended on the gravity flow of water, from a spring or from an aqueduct supplied from a distant and higher source of water.
Christian allegory made much use of the concept of the fountain, specifically the Fountain of Life, associated with the rebirth that was intended to be experienced at the Baptismal font.
An offshoot of the Fountain of Life was the legend of the Fountain of Youth, which Hernando de Soto sought in Florida.
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