Contemporary Garden Decoration: Fountains and their Beginnings
Contemporary Garden Decoration: Fountains and their Beginnings
A fountain, an incredible piece of engineering, not only supplies drinking water as it pours into a basin, it can also launch water high into the air for an extraordinary effect. Pure practicality was the original role of fountains. Residents of cities, townships and small towns used them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash, which meant that fountains had to be connected to nearby aqueduct or spring. Up to the late 19th century, water fountains had to be near an aqueduct or reservoir and more elevated than the fountain so that gravity could make the water flow down or jet high into the air. Fountains were not only used as a water source for drinking water, but also to decorate homes and celebrate the designer who created it. The main components used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly depicting animals or heroes. To depict the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages introduced fountains to their designs. To demonstrate his prominence over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. To mark the entrance of the restored Roman aqueducts, the Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries commissioned the building of baroque style fountains in the spot where the aqueducts arrived in the city of Rome
Indoor plumbing became the key source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby restricting urban fountains to mere 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 areas and are used to pay tribute to individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
Anglo Saxon Gardens During the Norman Conquest
Anglo Saxon Gardens During the Norman Conquest The advent of the Normans in the later half of the 11th century significantly transformed The Anglo-Saxon ways of living. At the time of the conquest, the Normans surpassed the Anglo-Saxons in building design and cultivation. But before centering on home-life or having the occasion to consider domestic architecture or decoration, the Normans had to subjugate an entire society.
Most often constructed upon windy summits, castles were fundamental constructs that permitted their occupants to devote time and space to offensive and defensive strategies, while monasteries were rambling stone buildings commonly placed in only the most fecund, extensive valleys. The sterile fortresses did not provide for the peaceful avocation of gardening. The early Anglo-Norman style of architecture is represented in Berkeley Castle, which is conceivably the most untouched sample we have. It is said that the keep was created during William the Conqueror's time. A spacious terrace intended for exercising and as a means to stop attackers from mining below the walls runs about the building. On 1 of these terraces lies a stylish bowling green: it is covered in grass and flanked by an old yew hedge that is created into the shape of rough ramparts.