The Origins Of Fountains
The Origins Of Fountains The dramatic or ornamental effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, as well as providing drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property.The main purpose of a fountain was originally strictly practical. Residents of urban areas, townships and small towns utilized them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash up, which meant that fountains needed to be connected to nearby aqueduct or spring. Until the late 19th, century most water fountains operated using gravity to allow water to flow or jet into the air, therefore, they needed a supply of water such as a reservoir or aqueduct located higher than the fountain. Fountains were not only used as a water source for drinking water, but also to adorn homes and celebrate the artist who created it. Bronze or stone masks of wildlife and heroes were commonly seen on Roman fountains. Muslims and Moorish garden designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller versions of the gardens of paradise.
To show his dominance over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden 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 spot where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
Since indoor plumbing became the norm of the day for fresh, drinking water, by the end of the 19th century urban fountains were no longer needed for this purpose and they became purely ornamental. The introduction of special water effects and the recycling of water were two things made possible by replacing gravity with mechanical pumps.
Beautifying city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the uses of modern-day fountains.
Original Water Supply Techniques in Rome
Original Water Supply Techniques in Rome Aqua Anio Vetus, the first raised aqueduct assembled in Rome, started out providing the individuals living in the hills with water in 273 BC, although they had relied on natural springs up until then. Outside of these aqueducts and springs, wells and rainwater-collecting cisterns were the only technological innovations readily available at the time to supply water to locations of greater elevation. In the very early 16th century, the city began to use the water that flowed below the ground through Acqua Vergine to deliver drinking water to Pincian Hill. The aqueduct’s channel was made accessible by pozzi, or manholes, that were added along its length when it was 1st created. During the some nine years he had the residential property, from 1543 to 1552, Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi made use of these manholes to take water from the network in containers, though they were originally built for the function of cleaning and servicing the aqueduct. He didn’t get a sufficient quantity of water from the cistern that he had constructed on his property to gather rainwater.
Via an orifice to the aqueduct that flowed below his property, he was able to reach his water needs.