Modern Garden Decoration: Outdoor Fountains and their Roots

Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. Water fountains were connected to a spring or aqueduct to provide drinkable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Up to the late nineteenth century, water fountains had to be near an aqueduct or reservoir and more elevated than the fountain so that gravity could make the water flow down or jet high into the air. Fountains were an optimal source of water, and also served to decorate living areas and celebrate the designer. Bronze or stone masks of animals and heroes were frequently seen on Roman fountains. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to mimic the gardens of paradise. To demonstrate his dominance over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. Seventeen and 18 century Popes sought to exalt their positions by including decorative baroque-style fountains at the point where restored Roman aqueducts arrived into the city.
Urban fountains made at the end of the 19th century served only as decorative and celebratory adornments since indoor plumbing provided the essential drinking water. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity allowed fountains to provide recycled water into living spaces as well as create special water effects.
Decorating city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the purposes of modern-day fountains.
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Bernini's Early Showpieces
Bernini's Early Showpieces One can see Bernini's very first masterpiece, the Barcaccia fountain, at the base of the Trinita dei Monti in Piaza di Spagna. To this day, you will see Roman locals and vacation goers filling this space to revel in chit chatter and being among other people. The streets surrounding his water fountain have come to be one of the city’s most trendy gathering places, something which would certainly have pleased Bernini himself. Dating back to around 1630, Pope Urbano VIII mandated what was to be the very first water fountain of the master's career. An enormous vessel slowly sinking into the Mediterranean is the fountain's central theme. The great flooding of the Tevere that covered the whole region with water in the 16th was commemorated by this momentous fountain as recorded by documents dating back to this time. In what became his only prolonged absence from Italy, Bernini {journeyed | traveled] to France in 1665.The Results of the Norman Conquest on Anglo Saxon Garden Design
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