Early Water Delivery Techniques in Rome
Early Water Delivery Techniques in Rome
Rome’s very first raised aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in 273 BC; before that, citizens residing at higher elevations had to rely on local springs for their water. Outside of these aqueducts and springs, wells and rainwater-collecting cisterns were the sole technological innovations available at the time to supply water to segments of greater elevation. In the very early sixteenth century, the city began to utilize the water that flowed underground through Acqua Vergine to provide water to Pincian Hill. Throughout the time of its initial building and construction, pozzi (or manholes) were positioned at set intervals alongside the aqueduct’s channel. Even though they were initially planned to make it possible to service the aqueduct, Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi started using the manholes to gather water from the channel, commencing when he acquired the property in 1543. He didn’t get an adequate amount water from the cistern that he had constructed on his property to obtain rainwater. Fortunately, the aqueduct sat directly below his property, and he had a shaft opened to give him accessibility.
When and Where Did Water Fountains Originate?
When and Where Did Water Fountains Originate? Himself a highly educated man, Pope Nicholas V headed the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 till 1455 and was responsible for the translation of hundreds of age-old texts from their original Greek into Latin. In order to make Rome worthy of being the capital of the Christian world, the Pope decided to enhance the beauty of the city. Starting in 1453, the ruined ancient Roman aqueduct known as the Aqua Vergine which had brought fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away, underwent restoration at the behest of the Pope. The ancient Roman custom of building an awe-inspiring commemorative fountain at the location where an aqueduct arrived, also known as a mostra, was restored by Nicholas V. The Trevi Fountain now occupies the space previously filled with a wall fountain built by Leon Battista Albert, an architect employed by the Pope. The Trevi Fountain as well as the renowned baroque fountains located in the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza Navona were eventually supplied with water from the altered aqueduct he had reconstructed.Where did Landscape Fountains Originate from?
Where did Landscape Fountains Originate from? A fountain, an amazing 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.The main purpose of a fountain was originally strictly functional. Inhabitants of urban areas, townships and small towns used them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash up, which meant that fountains needed to be connected to nearby aqueduct or spring. Used until the nineteenth century, in order for fountains to flow or shoot up into the air, their source of water such as reservoirs or aqueducts, had to be higher than the water fountain in order to benefit from gravity. Fountains were an optimal source of water, and also served to adorn living areas and memorialize the designer. Roman fountains often depicted imagery of animals or heroes made of metal or stone masks. Muslims and Moorish garden 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 meant to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France. To mark the entryway 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
The end of the nineteenth century saw the rise in usage of indoor plumbing to supply drinking water, so urban fountains were relegated to strictly decorative elements. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity helped fountains to deliver recycled water into living spaces as well as create special water effects.
Decorating city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the functions of modern-day fountains.