Where did Garden Water Fountains Come From?

Where did Garden Water Fountains Come From? The incredible construction of a fountain allows it to provide clean water or shoot water high into air for dramatic effect and it can also serve as an excellent design feature to complement your home.

From the beginning, outdoor fountains were simply there to serve as functional elements. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to supply them with potable water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Up until the nineteenth, fountains had to be more elevated and closer to a water source, including aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to benefit from gravity which fed the fountains. Artists thought of fountains as amazing additions to a living space, however, the fountains also served to provide clean water and celebrate the designer responsible for creating it. The main components used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to re-create the gardens of paradise. The fountains found in the Gardens of Versailles were intended to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries manufactured baroque decorative fountains to exalt the Popes who commissioned them as well as to mark the spot where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.

Indoor plumbing became the main source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby limiting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. Gravity was substituted by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for amazing water displays.

Modern fountains are used to adorn community spaces, honor individuals or events, and enhance recreational and entertainment events.

Water Transport Strategies in Early Rome

Water Transport Strategies in Early Rome Prior to 273, when the 1st elevated aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in Roma, residents who resided on hillsides had to go even further down to gather their water from natural sources. Outside of these aqueducts and springs, wells and rainwater-collecting cisterns were the only technological innovations readily available at the time to supply water to areas of greater elevation. From the early sixteenth century, water was routed to Pincian Hill by using the subterranean channel of Acqua Vergine. During the length of the aqueduct’s network were pozzi, or manholes, that gave access. While these manholes were manufactured to make it easier to maintain the aqueduct, it was also possible to use buckets to pull water from the channel, which was exercised by Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi from the time he invested in the property in 1543 to his death in 1552. The cistern he had built to collect rainwater wasn’t satisfactory to meet his water requirements. That is when he made a decision to create an access point to the aqueduct that ran beneath his property.