The Fountain of the Four Rivers dominates Piazza Navona, a square adorned with such buildings as S. Agnesse and Palazzo Pamphili, which belonged to the pope’s family. The sculptures are arranged around a central obelisk placed on a pedestal to improve its visibility. The origins of Bernini’s plan can be traced to the early Christian idea that placed the sources of all four cardinal rivers of the four continents on a single mountain (an idea similar to the notion that all four rivers in Paradise also had a single source). The fountain is, therefore, transformed into a symbolic center of the world.