Fountains
Tiered fountains, wall fountains with a lion head, a Trevi fountain, star ponds and garden canals with waterfalls. Choose the shape, the basins, the rim and the water, and build it layer by layer. The tool also shows where the water flows.
More wells are in Street decor.
Section
Top view
lighter = higherThe arrow on a stair points to its high side; a frame means upside down. Light blue is flowing water: it appears by itself.
Build breakdown
Per layer, from bottom to top
| Layer | Width | What is in it | Blocks |
|---|
Layer 1, row by row
| Row | Start | Pattern | Blocks |
|---|
Build tips
- Finish all the stonework first and pour in the water last. That way nothing flows away while you are still building.
- Make an infinite water source with two sources at the ends of a 1 × 3 hole: then scoop as many buckets as you like from the middle block.
- Water does not flow diagonally. A rim whose blocks only touch diagonally still holds the water.
- Flowing water travels 7 blocks across a flat floor. If a basin is wider, the water stops before the rim; add extra sources.
- You can hardly see a glass column. With a source on top it looks as if the water shoots up.
- Place coping stairs with the low side facing out. Place stair benches with the high side away from the water, so you look at the fountain.
- To light up the water, put sea lanterns or glowstone in the basin floor.
Tips for this type
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the design as a schematic file and paste it into your world with WorldEdit, or build along with a hologram in Litematica. Water and glass always stay water and glass. Flowing water is not in the file.
Shopping list
Add the amounts of this design to your list. There you see everything together, converted to stacks and shulker boxes.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
Water for the whole town
The first fountains were not decoration. They were public taps where people collected water for drinking, cooking and washing. In Greek and Roman towns, aqueducts brought water from the hills, and it ran all day into a basin or out of a stone head.
Fountains worked without pumps. The water entered the town higher than the fountain, so gravity pushed it down. That is how a jet rose up or a basin overflowed.
Cloister gardens and Moorish courtyards
In the Middle Ages, many monasteries had a fountain in the cloister. Monks washed their hands there before meals.
In the Alhambra in Granada, water ran through narrow channels across the floor. The Court of the Lions from the 14th century has a fountain carried by twelve stone lions. Four channels divide the court into four parts, an old image of a paradise garden.
Renaissance and Baroque: water as a show
In the Renaissance and Baroque periods, fountains became a sign of power. Rome got large sculpted fountains, such as Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers on Piazza Navona with an obelisk in the middle, and the Trevi Fountain, finished in 1762.
Louis XIV had large basins with water jets built at Versailles, such as the Latona Fountain. There was often not enough water to run them all at once. So the fountain keepers turned the jets on just before the king walked by.
Cascades and water stairs
At Italian villas and Russian palaces, water fell from one step to the next. The Grand Cascade at Peterhof near Saint Petersburg, built for Peter the Great, has golden statues along a wide water staircase.
A cascade is also practical. Each basin catches the water and passes it on. With little water you get a long, lively staircase.
Pumps, wells and tsukubai
In the countryside, people took water from a well or from a pump on the village square. In the Netherlands, the village pump often stood on the square or near the church, and people shared news there.
Japanese gardens have a tsukubai: a low stone basin where you wash your hands before the tea ceremony. A shishi-odoshi is a bamboo tube that fills with water, tips over and falls back with a knock. It was meant to scare away deer.
Modern dancing fountains
With electric pumps and computers, jets can now move to music. Well-known examples are at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
In Minecraft, water cannot shoot upward. That is why this tool uses tricks: a glass pillar with a water source on top, bubble columns from soul sand, or a whirlpool above a magma block.
Did you know?
- The Trevi Fountain in Rome was finished in 1762, to a design by Nicola Salvi.
- Visitors throw coins into the Trevi Fountain. The money is collected and given to charity.
- The Court of the Lions in the Alhambra has twelve stone lions around its fountain.
- Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) stands for four great rivers: the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges and the Río de la Plata.
- Roman fountains worked on gravity alone, without pumps.
- In Minecraft, water flows 7 blocks across a flat floor from its source.
About this tool
This Minecraft fountain generator lets you design a fountain and build it layer by layer. Choose a tiered fountain, a Renaissance quatrefoil, a wall fountain with a lion head, a Trevi fountain, a star or polygon basin, a round pond with a jet, a garden canal with cascades, a Moorish courtyard fountain, a Baroque statue fountain, an obelisk fountain, a Versailles basin, a dancing fountain, a Japanese tsukubai, a village pump, a wishing well, a waterfall staircase or a spiral fountain.
You set the basin shape (round, octagon, square, quatrefoil, star or polygon), the number of tiers and their width, the rim, the column and the type of water jet. Around the fountain you can add paving in a pattern, with benches made of stairs if you like. In a hurry? Pick one of more than thirty examples, from a park fountain with three tiers to the Grand Cascade of Peterhof.
The layer plan shows every block, row by row. You can also see the fountain in 3D, as a cross-section and from above. The tool counts the blocks and the buckets of water, and converts everything into stacks. With the block palette you choose your own stone. Click the blocks you have placed to keep track of your progress.
Prefer to build with a mod? Download the design as a .schem file for WorldEdit or Litematica. That way you can make a beautiful fountain in Minecraft for your village square, castle garden or city, whether you are new to building or have been building for years.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a Minecraft fountain that shoots water up?
In Minecraft, water only flows down. So you make a jet with a trick. Build a glass pillar and place a water source on top. You can barely see the glass, so the water seems to shoot up. Another way is a bubble column: water above soul sand pushes bubbles upward. In the tool you choose this under Jet type.
How many blocks and buckets of water do I need?
You see it at the top of your design. The tool counts the blocks without water, and separately the number of water sources, which means buckets. Flowing water (light blue in the plan) is not counted, because it appears by itself. With an infinite water source (two sources in a 1 × 3 hole) one bucket is enough to keep refilling.
Why does the water stop before the edge of my basin?
Flowing water only goes 7 blocks across a flat floor from its source. If a basin is wider, the water does not reach the edge. Place extra sources in the basin. The layer plan shows which blocks need to be a source.
When should I add the water?
At the very end. First build all the stone, the tiers, the column and the paving. Then nothing leaks away while you are still working. Start with the water in the top tier and work your way down.
Can I build this fountain in Bedrock?
Yes. The layer plan works in every edition, including Bedrock and Pocket Edition. The .schem file is for Java Edition with WorldEdit or Litematica. Water, glass and soul sand work the same in both editions.
How do I light up my fountain?
Place sea lanterns or glowstone in the floor under the water. For the dancing fountain you can choose lights under glass. Lanterns on the rim or in the paving around it also look good at night. More lanterns are in Lanterns and street decor.