The Origins of Modern Wall Fountains

The Origins of Modern Wall Fountains Origins Modern Wall Fountains 28039318555295539.jpg

Himself a highly educated man, Pope Nicholas V headed the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 till 1455 and was responsible for the translation of scores of ancient texts from their original Greek into Latin. Beautifying Rome and making it the worthy capital of the Christian world was at the core of his objectives. In 1453 the Pope commissioned the reconstruction of the Aqua Vergine, an ancient Roman aqueduct which had carried fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away. The ancient Roman tradition of marking the entry point of an aqueduct with an imposing celebratory fountain, also known as a mostra, was restored by Nicholas V. The architect Leon Battista Alberti was directed by the Pope to construct a wall fountain where we now find the Trevi Fountain. The water which eventually supplied the Trevi Fountain as well as the acclaimed baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona came from the modified aqueduct which he had renovated.

Anglo-Saxon Grounds During the Norman Conquest

Anglo-Saxon Grounds During the Norman Conquest Anglo-Saxon Grounds Norman Conquest 832100288325.jpg

The introduction of the Normans in the 2nd half of the eleventh century irreparably transformed The Anglo-Saxon lifestyle. Architecture and gardening were skills that the Normans excelled in, trumping that of the Anglo-Saxons at the time of the occupation. But nevertheless home life, household architecture, and decoration were out of the question until the Normans taken over the general populace. Castles were more standard designs and often constructed on blustery hills, where their people spent both time and space to practicing offense and defense, while monasteries were major stone buildings, commonly located in the widest, most fertile hollows. Gardening, a peaceful occupation, was unfeasible in these unproductive fortifications. Berkeley Castle is possibly the most unchanged model in existence at present of the early Anglo-Norman form of architecture. The keep is reported to have been invented during the time of William the Conqueror. A spacious terrace recommended for exercising and as a way to stop attackers from mining under the walls runs about the building. On one of these terraces lies a quaint bowling green: it's coated in grass and flanked by an old yew hedge that is created into the shape of rough ramparts.