Where did Fountains Originate from?
Where did Fountains Originate from?
A fountain, an incredible piece of engineering, not only supplies drinking water as it pours into a basin, it can also launch water high into the air for an extraordinary effect. Pure functionality was the original purpose of fountains. 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 to the late nineteenth century, water fountains had to be near an aqueduct or reservoir and higher than the fountain so that gravity could make the water move downwards or shoot high into the air. Fountains were not only used as a water source for drinking water, but also to decorate homes and celebrate the designer who created it. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often utilized by Romans to decorate their fountains. To illustrate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages introduced fountains to their designs. Fountains played a considerable role in the Gardens of Versailles, all part of French King Louis XIV’s desire to exert his power over nature. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were extolled with baroque style fountains built to mark the arrival points of Roman aqueducts.
Since indoor plumbing became the standard of the day for fresh, drinking water, by the end of the 19th century urban fountains were no longer needed for this purpose and they became purely ornamental. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity allowed fountains to provide recycled water into living spaces as well as create unique water effects.
These days, fountains adorn public areas and are used to recognize individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
The Root of Contemporary Wall Fountains
The Root of Contemporary Wall Fountains Himself a learned man, Pope Nicholas V headed the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 till 1455 and was responsible for the translation of hundreds of age-old texts from their original Greek into Latin. In order to make Rome deserving of being the capital of the Christian world, the Pope resolved to embellish the beauty of the city. In 1453 the Pope commissioned the rebuilding of the Aqua Vergine, an historic Roman aqueduct which had carried clean drinking water into the city from eight miles away. The ancient Roman custom of marking the arrival point of an aqueduct with an imposing celebratory fountain, also known as a mostra, was restored by Nicholas V. The Trevi Fountain now occupies the space previously filled with a wall fountain built by Leon Battista Albert, an architect commissioned by the Pope. The water which eventually provided the Trevi Fountain as well as the famed baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona came from the modified aqueduct which he had renovated.