When and Where Did Water Features Originate?

When and Where Did Water Features Originate? The translation of hundreds of classical Greek texts into Latin was commissioned by the scholarly Pope Nicholas V who led the Church in Rome from 1397 till 1455. Beautifying Rome and making it the worthy capital of the Christian world was at the heart of his ambitions. Restoration of the Acqua Vergine, a desolate Roman aqueduct which had carried fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away, began in 1453 at the bidding of the Pope. Building a mostra, a grandiose celebratory fountain built by ancient Romans to memorialize the arrival point of an aqueduct, was a tradition revived by Nicholas V. The Trevi Fountain now occupies the area previously filled with a wall fountain built by Leon Battista Albert, an architect commissioned by the Pope. Modifications 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.

Water Delivery Solutions in Historic Rome

Water Delivery Solutions in Historic Rome Water Delivery Solutions Historic Rome 091729366830.jpg

With the construction of the first elevated aqueduct in Rome, the Aqua Anio Vetus in 273 BC, people who lived on the city’s hillsides no longer had to depend only on naturally-occurring spring water for their demands. During this time period, there were only 2 other systems capable of providing water to high areas, subterranean wells and cisterns, which amassed rainwater. In the very early 16th century, the city began to use the water that flowed below the ground through Acqua Vergine to deliver water to Pincian Hill. Spanning the length of the aqueduct’s channel were pozzi, or manholes, that gave access. The manholes made it easier to thoroughly clean the channel, but it was also achievable to use buckets to remove water from the aqueduct, as we viewed with Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi when he bought the property from 1543 to 1552, the year he passed away. Apparently, the rainwater cistern on his property wasn’t sufficient to meet his needs. Through an orifice to the aqueduct that ran below his property, he was able to meet his water desires.