The Impact of the Norman Conquest on Anglo-Saxon Garden Design
The Impact of the Norman Conquest on Anglo-Saxon Garden Design The Anglo-Saxon way of life was significantly changed by the introduction of the Normans in the later eleventh century.
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 built upon windy summits, castles were basic constructs that enabled their occupants to spend time and space to offensive and defensive programs, while monasteries were rambling stone buildings frequently installed in only the most fecund, broad valleys. Peaceful pastimes such as gardening were out of place in these destitute citadels. The early Anglo-Norman style of architecture is portrayed in Berkeley Castle, which is perhaps the most unscathed illustration we have. It is said that the keep was created during William the Conqueror's time. A monumental terrace serves as a deterrent to intruders who would try to mine the walls of the building. On one of these terraces lies a stylish bowling green: it's covered in grass and flanked by an old yew hedge that is created into the shape of rough ramparts.
Water Transport Strategies in Ancient Rome
Water Transport Strategies in Ancient Rome
Aqua Anio Vetus, the first raised aqueduct founded in Rome, started off delivering the people living in the hills with water in 273 BC, although they had depended on natural springs up till then. If citizens residing at higher elevations did not have accessibility to springs or the aqueduct, they’d have to be dependent on the remaining existing techniques of the day, cisterns that compiled rainwater from the sky and subterranean wells that drew the water from under ground. From the early sixteenth century, water was routed to Pincian Hill by using the underground channel of Acqua Vergine. Pozzi, or manholes, were constructed at regular intervals along the aqueduct’s channel. While these manholes were developed to make it less difficult to preserve the aqueduct, it was also possible to use buckets to pull water from the channel, which was utilized by Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi from the time he purchased the property in 1543 to his death in 1552. The cistern he had constructed to collect rainwater wasn’t sufficient to meet his water requirements. Through an opening to the aqueduct that flowed below his property, he was set to satisfy his water demands.
The Genesis Of Garden Fountains
The Genesis Of Garden Fountains 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. Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. Water fountains were connected to a spring or aqueduct to supply potable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Up until the nineteenth, fountains had to be more elevated and closer to a water source, including aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to benefit from gravity which fed the fountains. Fountains were an optimal source of water, and also served to decorate living areas and memorialize the designer. The main materials used by the Romans to create their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly depicting animals or heroes. To replicate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages added fountains to their designs. Fountains enjoyed a considerable role in the Gardens of Versailles, all part of French King Louis XIV’s desire to exert his power over nature. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were glorified with baroque style fountains built to mark the arrival points of Roman aqueducts.
Indoor plumbing became the key source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby restricting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity enabled 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 uses of modern-day fountains.