Rome’s Early Water Transport Solutions
Rome’s Early Water Transport Solutions Rome’s 1st elevated aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in 273 BC; prior to that, people living at higher elevations had to rely on local streams for their water. When aqueducts or springs weren’t easily accessible, people dwelling at raised elevations turned to water pulled from underground or rainwater, which was made possible by wells and cisterns. Starting in the sixteenth century, a unique approach was introduced, using Acqua Vergine’s subterranean sections to supply water to Pincian Hill. Pozzi, or manholes, were constructed at regular intervals along the aqueduct’s channel. The manholes made it more straightforward to clean 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 operated the property from 1543 to 1552, the year he died. He didn’t get adequate water from the cistern that he had built on his residential property to obtain rainwater. Thankfully, the aqueduct sat just below his property, and he had a shaft opened to give him access.
Where did Landscape Fountains Begin?
Where did Landscape Fountains Begin? A fountain, an amazing piece of engineering, not only supplies drinking water as it pours into a basin, it can also launch water high into the air for an extraordinary effect.Pure functionality was the original purpose of fountains. People in cities, towns and villages received their drinking water, as well as water to bathe and wash, from aqueducts or springs nearby. Up until the nineteenth, fountains had to be higher and closer to a water supply, such as aqueducts and reservoirs, in order to benefit from gravity which fed the fountains. Fountains were not only utilized as a water source for drinking water, but also to adorn homes and celebrate the designer who created it. The main components used by the Romans to build their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly illustrating animals or heroes. Muslims and Moorish landscaping designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller models of the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France wanted to demonstrate his superiority over nature by including fountains in the Gardens of Versailles. Seventeen and 18 century Popes sought to extol their positions by adding decorative baroque-style fountains at the point where restored Roman aqueducts arrived into the city.
Urban fountains created at the end of the 19th century functioned only as decorative and celebratory ornaments since indoor plumbing provided the necessary drinking water. Fountains using mechanical pumps instead of gravity helped fountains to bring recycled water into living spaces as well as create special water effects.
Decorating city parks, honoring people or events and entertaining, are some of the uses of modern-day fountains.