Acqua Vergine: The Solution to Rome's Water Challenges

Acqua Vergine: The Solution to Rome's Water Challenges Acqua Vergine: Solution Rome's Water Challenges 3487069934.jpg

Aqua Anio Vetus, the first raised aqueduct founded in Rome, started delivering the many people living in the hills with water in 273 BC, even though they had counted on natural springs up till then. If inhabitants living at higher elevations did not have access to springs or the aqueduct, they’d have to rely on the remaining existing systems of the time, cisterns that compiled rainwater from the sky and subterranean wells that drew the water from below ground. To supply water to Pincian Hill in the early sixteenth century, they utilized the brand-new approach of redirecting the circulation from the Acqua Vergine aqueduct’s underground channel. During its original construction, pozzi (or manholes) were positioned at set intervals alongside the aqueduct’s channel. Although they were originally manufactured to make it possible to service the aqueduct, Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi started out using the manholes to accumulate water from the channel, commencing when he purchased the property in 1543. Though the cardinal also had a cistern to get rainwater, it didn’t supply sufficient water. That is when he decided to create an access point to the aqueduct that ran beneath his residence.

Bernini's First Masterpieces

Bernini's First Masterpieces Bernini's First Masterpieces 2262289017929866466.jpg

One can see Bernini's very first masterpiece, the Barcaccia fountain, at the base of the Trinita dei Monti in Piaza di Spagna. This spot is still filled with Roman locals and tourists who enjoy exchanging gossip or going over the day's news. The streets surrounding his water fountain have come to be one of the city’s most stylish meeting places, something which would certainly have pleased Bernini himself. The master's first fountain of his career was built at around 1630 at the behest of Pope Urbano VIII. A large boat slowly sinking into the Mediterranean is the fountain's main theme. The great 16th century flooding of the Tevere, which left the entire region inundated with water, was memorialized by the water fountain according to documents from the period. Absenting himself from Italy only once in his life for a lengthy time period, in 1665 Bernini traveled to France.

The Earliest Recorded Public Water Features of the Historical Past

The Earliest Recorded Public Water Features of the Historical Past As originally conceived, water fountains were crafted to be practical, guiding water from streams or reservoirs to the citizens of cities and settlements, where the water could be utilized for cooking, cleaning, and drinking. A supply of water higher in elevation than the fountain was necessary to pressurize the movement and send water squirting from the fountain's nozzle, a technology without equal until the later part of the 19th century. Earliest Recorded Public Water Features Historical Past 52901290906347.jpg

Earliest Recorded Public Water Features Historical Past 52901290906347.jpg

Frequently used as memorials and commemorative structures, water fountains have inspired people from all over the globe throughout the centuries. If you saw the very first fountains, you would not recognize them as fountains. Basic stone basins crafted from nearby stone were the original fountains, used for religious purposes and drinking water. 2,000 BC is when the oldest known stone fountain basins were actually used. The spray of water emerging from small jets was pressured by gravity, the lone power source builders had in those days. Positioned near aqueducts or creeks, the functional public water fountains furnished the local population with fresh drinking water. Fountains with ornate decoration started to appear in Rome in approximately 6 BC, normally gods and wildlife, made with natural stone or copper-base alloy. The Romans had an elaborate system of aqueducts that supplied the water for the countless fountains that were located throughout the city.