Bernini: The Master of Italy's Greatest Water Fountains

Bernini: The Master of Italy's Greatest Water Fountains The Barcaccia, Bernini's very first fountain, is a striking chef d'oeuvre built at the bottom of the Trinita dei Monti in Piaza di Spagna. Roman locals and site seers who enjoy conversation as well as being the company of others still go to this spot. One of the city’s most stylish gathering spots are the streets surrounding Bernini's fountain, which would certainly have brought a smile to the great Bernini. In around 1630, Pope Urbano VIII helped Bernini start off his career with the construction of his very first water fountain. Illustrated in the fountain's design is a great vessel slowly sinking into the Mediterranean Sea. The great flooding of the Tevere that blanketed the whole region with water in the 16th was memorialized by this momentous fountain as recorded by reports dating back to this period. In 1665, France was graced by Bernini's only extended journey outside of Italy.

Aqueducts: The Answer to Rome's Water Troubles

Aqueducts: The Answer to Rome's Water Troubles With the development of the first elevated aqueduct in Rome, the Aqua Anio Vetus in 273 BC, folks who lived on the city’s foothills no longer had to rely strictly on naturally-occurring spring water for their requirements. Over this period, there were only 2 other techniques capable of delivering water to elevated areas, subterranean wells and cisterns, which amassed rainwater. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, water was routed to Pincian Hill by way of the underground channel of Acqua Vergine. Through its original building and construction, pozzi (or manholes) were installed at set intervals along the aqueduct’s channel. The manholes made it less demanding to maintain the channel, but it was also achievable to use buckets to pull water from the aqueduct, as we saw with Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi when he bought the property from 1543 to 1552, the year he passed away. He didn’t get sufficient water from the cistern that he had manufactured on his property to collect rainwater. To provide himself with a more practical system to assemble water, he had one of the manholes opened, providing him access to the aqueduct below his residence.