The Genesis Of Garden Fountains
The Genesis Of Garden Fountains The incredible architecture 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 enhance your home.
Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. Inhabitants of urban areas, townships and small towns used them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash up, which meant that fountains had to be linked to nearby aqueduct or spring. Up until the nineteenth, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water supply, such as aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to benefit from gravity which fed the fountains. Serving as an element of decoration and celebration, fountains also provided clean, fresh drinking water. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often times utilized by Romans to beautify their fountains. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to mimic the gardens of paradise. The fountains seen in the Gardens of Versailles were meant to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries created baroque decorative fountains to glorify 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 restricting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. Gravity was replaced by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
Beautifying city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the functions of modern-day fountains.
The First Outdoor Fountains
The First Outdoor Fountains The water from rivers and other sources was initially supplied to the citizens of nearby towns and municipalities through water fountains, whose purpose was largely practical, not artistic. A source of water higher in elevation than the fountain was needed to pressurize the movement and send water squirting from the fountain's spout, a system without equal until the later part of the 19th century. The splendor and spectacle of fountains make them ideal for traditional memorials. When you enjoy a fountain at present, that is not what the 1st water fountains looked like. Designed for drinking water and ceremonial purposes, the first fountains were basic carved stone basins. 2000 B.C. is when the earliest identified stone fountain basins were originally used.
The first fountains used in ancient civilizations relied on gravity to manipulate the circulation of water through the fountain. The placement of the fountains was influenced by the water source, which is why you’ll commonly find them along reservoirs, waterways, or rivers. Fountains with flowery decoration began to appear in Rome in about 6 BC, normally gods and animals, made with natural stone or bronze. The extraordinary aqueducts of Rome furnished water to the eye-catching public fountains, most of which you can visit today.