The Origins Of Fountains
The Origins Of 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 complete your home.Pure functionality was the original role of fountains. People in cities, towns and villages received their drinking water, as well as water to bathe and wash, from aqueducts or springs in the vicinity. Up until the nineteenth, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water supply, such as aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to take advantage of gravity which fed the fountains. Acting as an element of decoration and celebration, fountains also supplied clean, fresh drinking water. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often times used by Romans to beautify their fountains. Muslims and Moorish landscaping designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller versions of the gardens of paradise. The fountains seen in the Gardens of Versailles were supposed to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France.
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 entered 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 decorative. Impressive water effects and recycled water were made possible by switching the force of gravity with mechanical pumps.
Modern fountains are used to embellish public spaces, honor individuals or events, and enrich recreational and entertainment events.
The History of Outdoor Fountains
The History of Outdoor Fountains The translation of hundreds of classic Greek documents into Latin was commissioned by the scholarly Pope Nicholas V who ruled the Church in Rome from 1397 until 1455. Embellishing Rome and making it the worthy capital of the Christian world was at the center of his objectives. In 1453 the Pope instigated the reconstruction of the Aqua Vergine, an ancient Roman aqueduct which had carried fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away. The ancient Roman custom of building an imposing commemorative fountain at the point where an aqueduct arrived, also known as a mostra, was resurrected by Nicholas V. At the behest of the Pope, architect Leon Battista Alberti began the construction of a wall fountain in the place where we now find the Trevi Fountain.
The aqueduct he had refurbished included modifications and extensions which eventually enabled it to supply water to the Trevi Fountain as well as the famed baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza Navona.