Rome’s Early Water Transport Solutions
Rome’s Early Water Transport Solutions
Prior to 273, when the very first elevated aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was made in Roma, inhabitants who lived on hills had to journey further down to get their water from natural sources. If citizens residing at higher elevations did not have access to springs or the aqueduct, they’d have to rely on the other existing solutions of the day, cisterns that compiled rainwater from the sky and subterranean wells that drew the water from under ground. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, water was routed to Pincian Hill through the subterranean channel of Acqua Vergine. During the length of the aqueduct’s network were pozzi, or manholes, that gave entry. The manholes made it easier to maintain 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 owned the property from 1543 to 1552, the year he died. Despite the fact that the cardinal also had a cistern to collect rainwater, it didn’t provide sufficient water. To give himself with a more effective system to obtain water, he had one of the manholes exposed, giving him access to the aqueduct below his residence.
Where did Large Garden Fountains Originate from?
Where did Large Garden Fountains Originate from? 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 enhance your home.Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to provide them with drinking water as well as water where they could bathe or wash.
Up to the late nineteenth century, water fountains had to be near an aqueduct or reservoir and higher than the fountain so that gravity could make the water move downwards or shoot high into the air. Serving as an element of decoration and celebration, fountains also provided clean, fresh drinking water. The main components used by the Romans to build 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 introduced fountains to their designs. King Louis XIV of France wanted to demonstrate his dominion over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. To mark the entrance 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
Indoor plumbing became the main source of water by the end of the 19th century thereby limiting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. The creation of unique water effects and the recycling of water were two things made possible by swapping gravity with mechanical pumps.
Nowadays, fountains adorn public spaces and are used to pay tribute to individuals or events and fill recreational and entertainment needs.
The Source of Modern Outdoor Fountains
The Source of Modern Outdoor Fountains Hundreds of classic Greek records were translated into Latin under the auspices of the scholarly Pope Nicholas V, who ruled the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455. Embellishing Rome and making it the worthy capital of the Christian world was at the center of his objectives.
At the behest of the Pope, the Aqua Vergine, a ruined aqueduct which had carried clean drinking water into Rome from eight miles away, was reconditioned starting in 1453. Building a mostra, an imposing commemorative fountain built by ancient Romans to memorialize the entry point of an aqueduct, was a tradition revived by Nicholas V. The Trevi Fountain now occupies the space formerly filled with a wall fountain built by Leon Battista Albert, an architect commissioned by the Pope. The aqueduct he had reconditioned included modifications and extensions which eventually allowed it to supply water to the Trevi Fountain as well as the renowned baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza Navona.