Original Water Supply Techniques in Rome
Original Water Supply Techniques in Rome
With the manufacturing of the first elevated aqueduct in Rome, the Aqua Anio Vetus in 273 BC, people who lived on the city’s hillsides no longer had to depend solely on naturally-occurring spring water for their demands. Throughout this period, there were only two other technologies capable of supplying water to higher areas, subterranean wells and cisterns, which gathered rainwater. In the very early 16th century, the city began to make use of the water that ran below the ground through Acqua Vergine to supply water to Pincian Hill. Pozzi, or manholes, were constructed at regular stretches along the aqueduct’s channel. While these manholes were manufactured to make it much easier to conserve the aqueduct, it was also possible to use buckets to remove water from the channel, which was exercised by Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi from the time he obtained the property in 1543 to his passing in 1552. He didn’t get adequate water from the cistern that he had manufactured on his property to gather rainwater. That is when he made a decision to create an access point to the aqueduct that ran under his property.
Modern Garden Decor: Fountains and their Beginnings
Modern Garden Decor: Fountains and their Beginnings The dramatic or decorative effect of a fountain is just one of the purposes it fulfills, as well as supplying drinking water and adding a decorative touch to your property. Pure functionality was the original role of fountains. Inhabitants of cities, townships and small towns used them as a source of drinking water and a place to wash, which meant that fountains had to be connected to nearby aqueduct or spring. Up to the late 19th century, water fountains had to be near an aqueduct or reservoir and more elevated than the fountain so that gravity could make the water move down or jet high into the air. Acting as an element of adornment and celebration, fountains also supplied clean, fresh drinking water. Animals or heroes made of bronze or stone masks were often times used by Romans to beautify their fountains. Muslims and Moorish landscaping designers of the Middle Ages included fountains to re-create smaller versions of the gardens of paradise. The fountains seen in the Gardens of Versailles were meant to show the power over nature held by King Louis XIV of France. Seventeen and 18 century Popes sought to laud their positions by adding decorative baroque-style fountains at the point where restored Roman aqueducts arrived into 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 introduction of unique water effects and the recycling of water were two things made possible by swapping gravity with mechanical pumps.
Modern-day fountains function mostly as decoration for public spaces, to honor individuals or events, and compliment entertainment and recreational events.