The fountain, located in Piazza Cavour next to the statue of Paul V, was built in 1543 by Giovanni da Carrara, respecting the original design. The drum that supports the Pine Cone is much older, dating back to Roman times and adorned with bas-reliefs.

The beauty and form of the water features captivated Leonardo da Vinci, whose testimony is engraved on the monument: "Create harmony with the different falls of water, as you saw at the fountain in Rimini."

Leonardo arrived in Rimini as an engineer and military advisor to Cesare Borgia, and was struck by the joyful sound of the water spouts of the city's main fountain.

As he himself writes: "Create harmony with the different falls of water, as you saw at the fountain in Rimini, as you saw on August 8, 1502."

This harmony would have suggested the idea of building a hydraulic organ, using water not as a pump to compress air, as was the case in the traditional organs known at the time, but by making the water itself sound as it fell into differently shaped vessels.

The fountain represented the city's only source of drinking water until 1912, when the public aqueduct was inaugurated, and even today its water is appreciated by passersby, especially on warm summer evenings.

The pine cone replaced the small statue of Saint Paul, erected in 1545, in 1809. The statue is now on display at the city museum.