Rome’s Ingenious Water Transport Solutions

Rome’s Ingenious Water Transport Solutions Rome’s 1st raised aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in 273 BC; before that, citizens living at higher elevations had to depend on natural springs for their water. Throughout this time period, there were only two other innovations capable of providing water to elevated areas, subterranean wells and cisterns, which amassed rainwater. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, water was routed to Pincian Hill through the underground channel of Acqua Vergine. During the length of the aqueduct’s passage were pozzi, or manholes, that gave access. The manholes made it more straightforward to clean the channel, but it was also possible to use buckets to remove water from the aqueduct, as we discovered with Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi when he possessed the property from 1543 to 1552, the year he died. Though the cardinal also had a cistern to collect rainwater, it couldn't provide enough water. Via an opening to the aqueduct that flowed below his property, he was able to satisfy his water wants.

The Root of Modern Wall Fountains

The Root of Modern Wall Fountains Pope Nicholas V, himself a learned man, reigned the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455 during which time he commissioned many translations of ancient classic Greek documents into Latin. In order to make Rome worthy of being the capital of the Christian world, the Pope resolved to embellish the beauty of the city. At the bidding of the Pope, the Aqua Vergine, a damaged aqueduct which had transported clean drinking water into Rome from eight miles away, was reconditioned starting in 1453. A mostra, a monumental celebratory fountain constructed by ancient Romans to mark the point of arrival of an aqueduct, was a practice which was revived by Nicholas V. At the behest of the Pope, architect Leon Battista Alberti undertook the construction of a wall fountain in the place where we now find the Trevi Fountain. Adjustments and extensions, included in the restored aqueduct, eventually supplied the Trevi Fountain and the well-known baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona with the necessary water supply.