Where did Garden Water Fountains Begin?
Where did Garden Water Fountains Begin? The amazing or ornamental effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, in addition to delivering drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property.
Originally, fountains only served a functional purpose. Water fountains were linked to a spring or aqueduct to provide drinkable water as well as bathing water for cities, townships and villages. Up until the 19th century, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water source, including aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to take advantage of gravity which fed the fountains. Acting as an element of adornment and celebration, fountains also supplied 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. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to re-create the gardens of paradise. Fountains played a considerable role in the Gardens of Versailles, all part of French King Louis XIV’s desire to exercise his power over nature. Seventeen and 18 century Popes sought to laud their positions by including beautiful baroque-style fountains at the point where restored Roman aqueducts arrived into 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. The introduction of unique water effects and the recycling of water were two things made possible by swapping gravity with mechanical pumps.
Modern fountains are used to adorn public spaces, honor individuals or events, and enhance recreational and entertainment events.
Rome’s First Water Delivery Solutions
Rome’s First Water Delivery Solutions Rome’s first elevated aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in 273 BC; prior to that, citizens residing at higher elevations had to depend on local creeks for their water. When aqueducts or springs weren’t accessible, people dwelling at raised elevations turned to water taken from underground or rainwater, which was made possible by wells and cisterns. Beginning in the sixteenth century, a unique strategy was introduced, using Acqua Vergine’s subterranean segments to supply water to Pincian Hill. Pozzi, or manholes, were made at standard stretches along the aqueduct’s channel. Though they were primarily planned to make it possible to service the aqueduct, Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi started using the manholes to accumulate water from the channel, starting when he acquired the property in 1543.
It appears that, the rainwater cistern on his property wasn’t adequate to satisfy his needs. To give himself with a much more useful means to assemble water, he had one of the manholes opened up, offering him access to the aqueduct below his property.
When and Where Did Water Fountains Emerge?
When and Where Did Water Fountains Emerge? The translation of hundreds of classical Greek texts into Latin was commissioned by the learned Pope Nicholas V who led the Church in Rome from 1397 until 1455. In order to make Rome deserving of being the capital of the Christian world, the Pope resolved to enhance the beauty of the city.
In 1453 the Pope commissioned the reconstruction of the Aqua Vergine, an ancient Roman aqueduct which had carried clean drinking water into the city from eight miles away. Building a mostra, an imposing celebratory fountain built by ancient Romans to memorialize the entry point of an aqueduct, was a custom revived by Nicholas V. The architect Leon Battista Alberti was directed by the Pope to construct a wall fountain where we now see the Trevi Fountain. Modifications and extensions, included in the repaired aqueduct, eventually provided the Trevi Fountain and the well-known baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona with the necessary water supply.