The Genesis Of Outdoor Fountains
The Genesis Of Outdoor Fountains
A water fountain is an architectural piece that pours water into a basin or jets it high into the air in order to provide drinkable water, as well as for decorative purposes. Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. Water fountains were connected to a spring or aqueduct to supply drinkable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Used until the nineteenth century, in order for fountains to flow or shoot up into the air, their source of water such as reservoirs or aqueducts, had to be higher than the water fountain in order to benefit from gravity. Fountains were an optimal source of water, and also served to adorn living areas and memorialize the designer. The main components used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes. To illustrate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages introduced fountains to their designs. To show his dominance over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. 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 location where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
The end of the nineteenth century saw the rise in usage of indoor plumbing to supply drinking water, so urban fountains were relegated to purely decorative elements. Gravity was substituted by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
These days, fountains adorn public spaces and are used to honor individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
Water Transport Strategies in Ancient Rome
Water Transport Strategies in Ancient Rome Rome’s very first raised aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in 273 BC; before that, people living at higher elevations had to rely on local creeks for their water. When aqueducts or springs weren’t easily accessible, people dwelling at higher elevations turned to water pulled from underground or rainwater, which was made possible by wells and cisterns. Beginning in the sixteenth century, a newer approach was introduced, using Acqua Vergine’s subterranean sectors to generate water to Pincian Hill. Pozzi, or manholes, were built at standard intervals along the aqueduct’s channel. Even though they were initially developed to make it possible to service the aqueduct, Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi started out using the manholes to get water from the channel, opening when he purchased the property in 1543. He didn’t get an adequate amount water from the cistern that he had built on his property to collect rainwater. Via an orifice to the aqueduct that ran underneath his property, he was in a position to reach his water desires.