The Genesis Of Fountains
The Genesis Of Fountains The incredible architecture 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 complete your home.From the beginning, outdoor fountains were simply there to serve as functional elements. People in cities, towns and villages received their drinking water, as well as water to bathe and wash, via aqueducts or springs nearby. Up until the 19th century, fountains had to be more elevated and closer to a water source, including aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to take advantage of gravity which fed the fountains. Serving as an element of adornment and celebration, fountains also generated clean, fresh drinking water.
Roman fountains often depicted images of animals or heroes made of metal or stone masks. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to re-create the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France wanted to demonstrate his dominion over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries created baroque decorative fountains to exalt the Popes who commissioned them as well as to mark the location where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
Indoor plumbing became the key source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby limiting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity allowed fountains to provide recycled water into living spaces as well as create special water effects.
Beautifying city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the functions of modern-day fountains.
Anglo Saxon Grounds During the Norman Conquest
Anglo Saxon Grounds During the Norman Conquest
The arrival of the Normans in the second half of the 11th century irreparably altered The Anglo-Saxon lifestyle. At the time of the conquest, the Normans surpassed the Anglo-Saxons in building design and cultivation. But before concentrating on home-life or having the occasion to think about domestic architecture or decoration, the Normans had to subjugate an entire society. Because of this, castles were cruder constructions than monasteries: Monasteries were frequently immense stone buildings located in the biggest and most fecund valleys, while castles were erected on windy crests where their citizens dedicated time and space to tasks for offense and defense. The tranquil practice of gardening was unrealistic in these dreary bastions. The purest specimen of the early Anglo-Norman style of architecture existent in modern times is Berkeley Castle. The keep is said to date from the time of William the Conqueror. A significant terrace serves as a discouraging factor to invaders who would attempt to mine the walls of the building. One of these terraces, a charming bowling green, is covered grass and flanked by an ancient yew hedge cut into the figure of crude battlements.