Rome’s Ingenious Water Delivery Solutions

Rome’s Ingenious Water Delivery Solutions With the development of the 1st raised aqueduct in Rome, the Aqua Anio Vetus in 273 BC, people who lived on the city’s hills no longer had to rely entirely on naturally-occurring spring water for their needs. If inhabitants residing at higher elevations did not have access to springs or the aqueduct, they’d have to depend on the other existing solutions of the time, cisterns that collected rainwater from the sky and subterranean wells that received the water from below ground. Starting in the sixteenth century, a newer system was introduced, using Acqua Vergine’s subterranean sectors to deliver water to Pincian Hill. As originally constructed, the aqueduct was provided along the length of its channel with pozzi (manholes) constructed at regular intervals. Although they were originally manufactured to make it possible to support the aqueduct, Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi started out using the manholes to gather water from the channel, opening when he purchased the property in 1543. Reportedly, the rainwater cistern on his property wasn’t adequate to fulfill his needs. Through an opening to the aqueduct that flowed underneath his property, he was in a position to satisfy his water desires.

Inventors of the First Water Fountains

Inventors of the First Water Fountains Multi-talented individuals, fountain designers from the 16th to the late 18th century typically served as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and highly educated scholars all in one. Throughout the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci illustrated the artist as an inspired intellect, creator and scientific expert. The forces of nature guided him to examine the qualities and motion of water, and due to his fascination, he systematically documented his observations in his now famed notebooks. Early Italian water fountain builders altered private villa settings into inspiring water showcases full of symbolic meaning and natural elegance by combining creativity with hydraulic and gardening talent. The splendors in Tivoli were created by the humanist Pirro Ligorio, who was renowned for his capabilities in archeology, architecture and garden design. Other water fountain designers, masterminding the incredible water marbles, water functions and water jokes for the many mansions in the vicinity of Florence, were well-versed in humanistic subjects and classical scientific readings.