Where did Landscape Fountains Originate from?
Where did Landscape Fountains Originate from? The incredible construction 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 enhance your home.The main purpose of a fountain was originally strictly functional. Water fountains were linked to a spring or aqueduct to supply drinkable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. 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 supply of water such as a reservoir or aqueduct located higher than the fountain. Serving as an element of decoration and celebration, fountains also supplied clean, fresh drinking water.
Roman fountains often depicted images of animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks. To depict the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages added fountains to their designs. To demonstrate his dominance over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were extolled with baroque style fountains made to mark the arrival points of Roman aqueducts.
The end of the 19th century saw the rise in usage of indoor plumbing to supply drinking water, so urban fountains were relegated to purely decorative elements. Gravity was replaced by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for amazing water displays.
Modern-day fountains serve mostly as decoration for community spaces, to honor individuals or events, and enhance entertainment and recreational activities.
Back Story of Outdoor Water Fountains
Back Story of Outdoor Water Fountains Pope Nicholas V, himself a learned man, governed the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455 during which time he commissioned many translations of old 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. Beginning in 1453, the ruined ancient Roman aqueduct known as the Aqua Vergine which had brought clean drinking water into the city from eight miles away, underwent repair at the behest of the Pope. The historical Roman tradition of marking the arrival point of an aqueduct with an imposing celebratory fountain, also known as a mostra, was restored by Nicholas V. The present-day location of the Trevi Fountain was once occupied by a wall fountain commissioned by the Pope and constructed by the architect Leon Battista Alberti. Modifications and extensions, included in the restored aqueduct, eventually provided the Trevi Fountain and the well-known baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona with the necessary water supply.