Question:
The recent pedestrianisation of the "Place St-Catherine" in central Brussels, including provision of a new public drinking-water source, leads me towonder whether there are other such initiatives in major European cities.

Until relatively recently, such public drinking-fountains were commonplace,but the combined effect of various pressures (eg competition for the sale ofsoft drinks, possible attractiveness to transients, questionable hygiene...)seem to have gradually led to their disappearance (or replacement byfountains with water unsuitable for human consumption) - at least in theareas frequented by tourists (except in Switzerland, and a few railstations, AFAIK). So I write to invite readers to report the locations ofpublic drinking-water sources (drinking-fountains or taps for re-fillingwater-bottles) in the main public squares etc. of European cities.

Here in Brussels, the only other such location of a source of drinking-wateris the Bois de la Cambre (three inconspicuous standpipes).

And in London, I recently found a working drinking-fountain in Hoxton Sq.

Answer: I was just going to respond about Milan, but not in such enthusiasticterms. You refer to what are called "the widows" or "the green dragons".

The first denomination ("le vedove") is referred to the fact that thefountains are always active ("weeping"). There is no tap as such.

The second ("il drago verde", common in an expression like "I offer youa drink at the Green Dragon") refer to the design of the littlefountains. The main body is painted dark green, and the tap (well, it'snot a tap, what's the word ? spout ?) ... I mean, where the water comesout, is shaped like a dragon head, and painted bronze. A curious thingis that the spout has a little hole on the above. If you close the mainspout below with your finger, water springs out from the hole. Good fordrinking, and very popular among children to play tricks !

The lack-of-enthusiasm in my answer intended to be in the sense that,yes, such drinking fountains were always there (while there is adefinite lack of monumental fountains in Milan (*)), but nowadays I amseeing less of them. You can still find them in parks, or in secondarystreets, but if they refurbish some square, they won't put it back.

It was not that I diskike the green dragons. I actually have even asmall ceramics model at home ... the people of the Aqueduct used tohave them produced on request.

But they are one of the good old things of old times which are goingaway, like the other dark green things which once could be seen inMilan, the "vespasiani" (public toilets).

(*) this dates back long ago. There is even a square (piazza Fontana,nowadays better remembered for the 1969 bomb attentate) whose namemean "Fountain square", because in 1700 that was the only monumentalfountain in Milan.