The original meaning of the word fountain refers to a spring of water.

Throughout history springs have played an important part in the placement of settlements. This is especially so in hot countries, where freshwater rivers or lakes were not present and settlement on a permanent basis could not be contemplated without a reliable source of water.

In the United Kingdom settlements generally grew up on rivers or lakes although hilltop settlements such as Petworth were made possible because of springs.

Research on the water supply of early Greek settlements shows that the principle towns were based around springs which well up in Greece because of the particular geology of that region. These springs, called Karst springs, arise when water is forced to the surface by the underground geological structure. This often happened inland.

Where these springs rose and the other natural requirements of a settlement (including beauty) were fulfilled, settlements grew up around them. We are fortunate in that in Greece, in a manner which is not the case for early Persian water features, there are records and remains still to be found today. Greek culture was the basis of Roman culture which eventually led to the Renaissance water gardens.

Because the Greeks wondered at these water phenonimum they considered that they were gifts from a god or gods and were invariably named after that god. Mythologies grew up around the fountainheads and tales of Gods, Goddesses and water nymphs abound.

At Delphi, for example, at a spring which still exists, water was channeled to flow into the temple of Apollo, the shrine of the Oracle. There the Pythis, a middle aged trance medium dressed as a young girl, would drink the water before uttering prophecies which the priests translated into ambiguous hexameters. Other springs were noted for their healing and other properties. Indeed one at Nauplia annually restored the virginity of the goddess. Here, sadly, mortals who bathed in it were generally only gifted with unusual beauty.

Usually the head of the spring was dug back into the hillside and the source decorated or built around, both to honour the god, and to assure the purity and good management of that source.

The earliest architecturally developed spring on record was the Callirrhoe in Athens, built around 560-510 BC. The water was directed into nine outlets, which consisted of bronze lion heads with water issuing from the mouths.

The Greeks were in fact extremely sophisticated in their control of water resources and generally only used the springs for drinking or ritualistic purposes. Water for washing and cooking was generally stored in cisterns which filled in the rainy season and supplied non drinking needs throughout the year. It was the custom to collect drinking water (some 8% of the requirement of Greek households) from the fountains in the town. The remains of some of these fountainheads can still be seen in Greece today, although most of them have stopped working because of alterations to the water table.

The capacity of the springs at the fountainhead limited the size of the community that could grow up around the spring unless other sources of water could be brought to the community. This need brought about the advances in water engineering discussed in the next chapter.

CONDUITS

Ancient Rome can be used as a prime example of the next major development of man in relation to water, namely conduits or water pipes and troughs. These are used to good effect in Rome to sustain a much larger population than the immediately available water system was capable of supplying.

It is supposed that Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus on Springs near the river Tiber. Because those springs are not capable of supporting a population of more than 50, 000, Rome was only able to develop with the help of applied hydraulic engineering utilizing the local topography and geography.

Rome is surrounded by hills from which it was, and in part still is, fed water by a series of tunnels and aqueducts in bountiful supply. In ancient times these were entirely fed using gravity, enabling Rome to increase its population and grow to be the capital city of the largest Empire the world had seen. These water conduits were considered by the Romans to be the 8th wonder of the world and do illustrate a remarkable knowledge of surveying and engineering.

Interestingly, although we mainly think of the Roman's aqueducts, in fact most of the water was carried through tunnels, many of which survive and are still in use today. Indeed because the behavioural characteristics of water remain the same, much of the engineering techniques possibly pioneered by and certainly used to an extraordinary extent by the Romans both in their capitol city and in their empire, are still valid today.

The Roman empire spread the engineering skills of the Romans across Europe and Roman aqueducts can still be seen in the south of France and Segovia in Spain.

At the time of the first Gothic sacking of Rome in AD. 410 eleven aqueducts were feeding 1, 212 public fountains, 11 great imperial thermae and 926 public baths. Much of the modern water supply of Rome is based on these water engineering feats.

We are very fortunate in that in medieval times the works of the great administrator Frontinus were found.

Frontinus returned to Rome after service overseas including Governorship of England (and the quelling of the Welsh) and was made Chief commissioner of water for Rome whilst in his early sixties. He made his first task to familiarize himself with the wonderful water supply system and also record the facts. It is these records which illuminate the perennial problems of the water supplier. He found the system in disarray, both through corruption and bad maintenance. The water transportation systems leaked badly, particularly where the water travelled in aqueducts. Local landowners were known to create or encourage leaks over their land and to bribe officials not to repair them. Frontinus wrote' the public watercourses are actually brought to a standstill by private citizens just to water their gardens '

Each aqueduct delivered its water to a terminal castellum, which is a settling tank and distribution point, from where it was distributed in lead pipes (many from Britain) around the city. The watermen, often slaves saving to buy their freedom would insert illegal pipes and sell the water privately.

Frontinus restored the wonderful water supply system so that Rome was able to prosper with Potable fresh water for all in abundance. This encouraged the building of many small as well as display fountains.

In Rome it was, and perhaps still is, a matter of civic pride that well off city dwellers built small drinking fountains at the edge of their property to aid and stimulate passers by.

One of the by-products of the water engineering was clean and free flowing sewers which kept the city healthy.

Few examples of the early examples of Roman fountains remain. Almost all were destroyed in the dark ages when the population of Rome was radically reduced, as all the water systems were damaged and fell into disrepair. Indeed it is said that during the dark ages the entire population of Rome was fed by corn grown inside the city wall.

Figure 15.
The Galleon Statue by Jan Van Santen. 1620. Vatican. Rome.

With the renaissance of the City from the 14th century and the return of the Popes, the traditions of fountain building were reborn, and many of the fine display fountains playing in Rome today are the result of the desire of Popes or other wealthy patrons to beautify the city. (Figure 15).