Acqua Vergine: The Answer to Rome's Water Challenges
Acqua Vergine: The Answer to Rome's Water Challenges
Rome’s first raised aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in 273 BC; prior to that, inhabitants living at higher elevations had to rely on natural streams for their water. Outside of these aqueducts and springs, wells and rainwater-collecting cisterns were the only technologies obtainable at the time to supply water to locations of greater elevation. From the early sixteenth century, water was routed to Pincian Hill via the subterranean channel of Acqua Vergine. As originally constructed, the aqueduct was provided along the length of its channel with pozzi (manholes) constructed at regular intervals. While these manholes were provided to make it easier to conserve the aqueduct, it was also possible to use containers to pull water from the channel, which was employed by Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi from the time he obtained the property in 1543 to his passing in 1552. Even though the cardinal also had a cistern to accumulate rainwater, it couldn't produce sufficient water. That is when he decided to create an access point to the aqueduct that ran underneath his property.
The Original Water Fountain Designers
The Original Water Fountain Designers
Multi-talented people, fountain artists from the 16th to the late 18th century often worked as architects, sculptors, artists, engineers and cultivated scholars all in one person. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci exemplified the artist as an innovative intellect, inventor and scientific specialist. He systematically documented his observations in his currently famed notebooks, following his tremendous curiosity in the forces of nature guided him to investigate the characteristics and movement of water. Early Italian water fountain engineers changed private villa configurations into innovative water showcases complete of symbolic meaning and natural elegance by coupling creativity with hydraulic and gardening expertise. The splendors in Tivoli were developed by the humanist Pirro Ligorio, who was celebrated for his skill in archeology, engineering and garden design. Other water feature designers, masterminding the extraordinary water marbles, water attributes and water antics for the many mansions in the vicinity of Florence, were tried and tested in humanist themes and time-honored scientific texts.
Where did Large Garden Fountains Originate from?
Where did Large Garden Fountains Originate from? A water fountain is an architectural piece that pours water into a basin or jets it high into the air in order to provide drinking water, as well as for decorative purposes.Originally, fountains only served a practical purpose. Water fountains were connected 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 more elevated and closer to a water source, including aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to benefit from gravity which fed the fountains.
Designers thought of fountains as amazing additions to a living space, however, the fountains also served to supply clean water and celebrate the artist responsible for building it. Roman fountains often depicted images of animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks. Muslims and Moorish garden designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller versions of the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France wanted to illustrate his dominion over nature by including fountains in the Gardens 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 location where the restored Roman aqueducts entered the city.
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 special water effects and the recycling of water were two things made possible by replacing gravity with mechanical pumps.
Contemporary fountains are used to adorn community spaces, honor individuals or events, and enrich recreational and entertainment events.