Outdoor Fountains: An Ideal Decor Accessory to Find Serenity

Modern Garden Decor: Outdoor Fountains and their Beginnings

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. Until the late nineteenth, century most water fountains operated using the force of gravity to allow water to flow or jet into the air, therefore, they needed a source of water such as a reservoir or aqueduct located higher than the fountain. Serving as an element of decoration and celebration, fountains also generated clean, fresh drinking water. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often times utilized by Romans to beautify their fountains. To depict the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages added fountains to their designs. King Louis XIV of France wanted to demonstrate his superiority over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. To mark the entrance of the restored Roman aqueducts, the Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries commissioned the construction of baroque style fountains in the spot where the aqueducts arrived in the city of Rome
Since indoor plumbing became the standard of the day for clean, drinking water, by the end of the 19th century urban fountains were no longer needed for this purpose and they became purely ornamental. The introduction of special water effects and the recycling of water were 2 things made possible by replacing gravity with mechanical pumps.
Embellishing city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the functions of modern-day fountains.