Seventeenth-Century Water Gardens and the Birth of Modern Science
The Plumbing Gallery
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One of the key elements of this
project is to gain a better understanding of the technology that made
these gardens work so here for those who share my fascination with
Renaissance plumbing are a few more selected images.
VILLA GRABAU
We wondered what lay beneath the many manhole covers scattered round Italian gardens, at Pratolino we had the chance to find out
PRATOLINO
The worker's eye view of the roof of the conduit which carried water to the Maschera Pond, note the protruding stones to enable the operatives to climb down into the system.
Gennaro shows off a collection of water pipes assembled from around the park in an access chamber upstream from the Maschera Pond
Small incoming conduit underneath the site of the villa, lined with something which is rather more than a half round pipe, the ledges are tiled.
A rare site, a well maintained cistern still performing its original function of supplying water to a series of fountains and cascades.
Steps down into the cistern with a chamber underneath, I'm not sure if the drain pipes are in-coming or out-going.
The stable yard had a series of decorative taps for filling various troughs and basins, here are two....
... and a third, hmmm... not quite sure what to make of this.
The boy sitting at the foot of the Fountain of the Siren is already to spray using this perforated bronze sheet.
And there's more to come...
VILLA GRABAU
We wondered what lay beneath the many manhole covers scattered round Italian gardens, at Pratolino we had the chance to find out
PRATOLINO
The worker's eye view of the roof of the conduit which carried water to the Maschera Pond, note the protruding stones to enable the operatives to climb down into the system.
Gennaro shows off a collection of water pipes assembled from around the park in an access chamber upstream from the Maschera Pond
Small incoming conduit underneath the site of the villa, lined with something which is rather more than a half round pipe, the ledges are tiled.
VILLA BUONVISI OLIVA
A rare site, a well maintained cistern still performing its original function of supplying water to a series of fountains and cascades.
Steps down into the cistern with a chamber underneath, I'm not sure if the drain pipes are in-coming or out-going.
The stable yard had a series of decorative taps for filling various troughs and basins, here are two....
... and a third, hmmm... not quite sure what to make of this.
The boy sitting at the foot of the Fountain of the Siren is already to spray using this perforated bronze sheet.
And there's more to come...