Girl on the Waves Fountain (Fântâna Fata pe Valuri) is a sculptural fountain in central Galați, created by Romanian sculptor Constantin Baraschi and installed in 1966. The work dates from the final year of Baraschi’s life and became one of the best-known pieces of public art in the city center.
At the center of the basin, a bronze female nude reclines on a raised decorative platform, surrounded by six bronze fish that send arcs of water over the figure when the fountain is operating. The composition has some visual resemblance to Baraschi’s 1963 sculpture Pe valuri in Mamaia, which also places a bronze female nude in a water setting.
Over the following decades, the fountain became a familiar meeting point in Galați and acquired the nickname Nespălata (The Unwashed One). The nickname became widely used locally and is still commonly understood as referring to the fountain.
