The Origins Of Garden Fountains
The Origins Of Garden Fountains The incredible architecture 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 enhance your home.
From the onset, outdoor fountains were soley there to serve as functional elements. Cities, towns and villages made use of nearby aqueducts or springs to provide them with drinking water as well as water where they could bathe or wash. Up to the late nineteenth century, water fountains had to be near an aqueduct or reservoir and more elevated than the fountain so that gravity could make the water flow down or jet high into the air. Fountains were not only utilized as a water source for drinking water, but also to adorn homes and celebrate the artist who created it. The main materials used by the Romans to create their fountains were bronze or stone masks, mostly depicting animals or heroes. During the Middle Ages, Muslim and Moorish garden designers included fountains in their designs to mimic the gardens of paradise. To demonstrate his dominance over nature, French King Louis XIV included fountains in the Garden of Versailles. The Romans of the 17th and 18th centuries manufactured baroque decorative fountains to glorify 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 restricting urban fountains to mere decorative elements. Gravity was replaced by mechanical pumps in order to enable fountains to bring in clean water and allow for beautiful water displays.
Modern fountains are used to embellish community spaces, honor individuals or events, and enrich recreational and entertainment events.
Acqua Vergine: The Answer to Rome's Water Troubles
Acqua Vergine: The Answer to Rome's Water Troubles Rome’s first elevated aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was built in 273 BC; prior to that, residents residing at higher elevations had to depend on local streams for their water. When aqueducts or springs weren’t accessible, people dwelling at raised elevations turned to water pulled from underground or rainwater, which was made available by wells and cisterns. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, water was routed to Pincian Hill through the subterranean channel of Acqua Vergine. Throughout the length of the aqueduct’s channel were pozzi, or manholes, that gave access. Whilst these manholes were manufactured to make it much easier to sustain the aqueduct, it was also feasible to use containers to pull water from the channel, which was done by Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi from the time he acquired the property in 1543 to his death in 1552. The cistern he had built to obtain rainwater wasn’t sufficient to meet his water specifications. To give himself with a more streamlined system to obtain water, he had one of the manholes opened up, offering him access to the aqueduct below his residence.The First Outdoor Fountains of Human History
The First Outdoor Fountains of Human History Water fountains were at first practical in purpose, used to bring water from canals or creeks to towns and hamlets, supplying the inhabitants with clean water to drink, wash, and cook with. A source of water higher in elevation than the fountain was necessary to pressurize the flow and send water squirting from the fountain's spout, a system without equal until the later part of the 19th century. The beauty and wonder of fountains make them ideal for traditional memorials. Simple in design, the very first water fountains did not look much like present fountains. The very first accepted water fountain was a natural stone basin created that served as a container for drinking water and ceremonial purposes. Stone basins as fountains have been uncovered from 2,000 B.C.. The earliest civilizations that utilized fountains depended on gravity to force water through spigots. Situated near aqueducts or springs, the functional public water fountains provided the local population with fresh drinking water. Fountains with flowery decoration began to show up in Rome in approx. 6 BC, usually gods and animals, made with natural stone or copper-base alloy.
Water for the community fountains of Rome arrived to the city via a elaborate system of water aqueducts.