Where did Garden Water Fountains Begin?
Where did Garden Water Fountains Begin? The incredible construction of a fountain allows it to provide clean water or shoot water high into air for dramatic effect and it can also serve as an excellent design feature to complement your home.Originally, fountains only served a functional purpose.
Residents of urban areas, townships and small towns used them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash, which meant that fountains needed to be connected to nearby aqueduct or spring. Used until the nineteenth century, in order for fountains to flow or shoot up into the air, their source of water such as reservoirs or aqueducts, had to be higher than the water fountain in order to benefit from gravity. Fountains were an excellent source of water, and also served to adorn living areas and memorialize the designer. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often utilized by Romans to decorate their fountains. To illustrate the gardens of paradise, Muslim and Moorish garden planners of the Middle Ages introduced fountains to their designs. To demonstrate his dominance over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. The Popes of the 17th and 18th centuries were glorified with baroque style fountains made to mark the arrival points of Roman aqueducts.
The end of the 19th century saw the rise in usage of indoor plumbing to provide drinking water, so urban fountains were relegated to purely decorative elements. Impressive water effects and recycled water were made possible by replacing the power of gravity with mechanical pumps.
Beautifying city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the functions of modern-day fountains.
From Where Did Water Fountains Originate?
From Where Did Water Fountains Originate? Pope Nicholas V, himself a learned man, reigned the Roman Catholic Church from 1397 to 1455 during which time he commissioned many translations of ancient classical Greek documents into Latin. Embellishing Rome and making it the worthy capital of the Christian world was at the center of his ambitions. Beginning in 1453, the ruined ancient Roman aqueduct known as the Aqua Vergine which had brought fresh drinking water into the city from eight miles away, underwent reconstruction at the behest of the Pope.
The historical Roman custom of marking the entry point of an aqueduct with an imposing celebratory fountain, also known as a mostra, was restored by Nicholas V. At the bidding of the Pope, architect Leon Battista Alberti undertook the construction of a wall fountain in the place where we now find the Trevi Fountain. The water which eventually provided the Trevi Fountain as well as the renown baroque fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Navona flowed from the modified aqueduct which he had renovated.