The
Aqua Traiana (later renamed the
Acqua Paola) was a 1st Century acqueduct built by Emperor Trajan from 98-117 AD. It channelled water from
Lake BraccianoLake Bracciano is a lake of volcanic origin in the Italian region of Lazio, northwest of Rome. With a surface of 56.76 km² it is the second largest lake in the region and one of the major lakes of Italy...
, 40 kilometers (25 mi) north-west of Rome, to Rome in ancient Roman times but had fallen into disuse by the 17th Century. It fed water mills arranged in a parallel sequence at the
JaniculumJaniculum is a hill in western Rome. Although the second-tallest hill , in the contemporary city of Rome, the Janiculum does not figure among the proverbial Seven Hills of Rome, being west of the Tiber and outside the boundaries of the ancient city.-Sights:The Janiculum is one of the best...
, under the present
American Academy in RomeThe American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome. It was created in 1913 out of a merger between the American School of Architecture and the American School of Classical Studies in Rome...
. The milling complex had a long history, and were famously put out of action by the Ostrogoths when they cut the aqueduct in 537 during the first siege of Rome.
The
Aqua Traiana (later renamed the
Acqua Paola) was a 1st Century acqueduct built by Emperor Trajan from 98-117 AD. It channelled water from
Lake BraccianoLake Bracciano is a lake of volcanic origin in the Italian region of Lazio, northwest of Rome. With a surface of 56.76 km² it is the second largest lake in the region and one of the major lakes of Italy...
, 40 kilometers (25 mi) north-west of Rome, to Rome in ancient Roman times but had fallen into disuse by the 17th Century. It fed water mills arranged in a parallel sequence at the
JaniculumJaniculum is a hill in western Rome. Although the second-tallest hill , in the contemporary city of Rome, the Janiculum does not figure among the proverbial Seven Hills of Rome, being west of the Tiber and outside the boundaries of the ancient city.-Sights:The Janiculum is one of the best...
, under the present
American Academy in RomeThe American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome. It was created in 1913 out of a merger between the American School of Architecture and the American School of Classical Studies in Rome...
. The milling complex had a long history, and were famously put out of action by the Ostrogoths when they cut the aqueduct in 537 during the first siege of Rome.
BelisariusFlavius Belisarius was one of the greatest generals of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian I's ambitious project of reconquering much of the old Western Roman Empire, which had been lost just under a century previously.One of the defining features of Belisarius' career...
restored the supply of grain by using mills floating in the
TiberThe Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
. The complex of mills bear parallels with a similar complex at Barbegal in southern
GaulGaul is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River...
Revival as Aqua Paola
Camillo Borghese, on his accession in 1605 as
Pope Paul VPope Paul V , born Camillo Borghese, was Pope from 16 May, 1605 until his death.-Early life:...
, initiated work on rebuilding the Aqua Traiana, supervised from 1609 by
Giovanni FontanaGiovanni Fontana was a Dominican friar and late-Mannerist architect, as well as brother of Domenico Fontana.-External links:*...
. At that time, the Roman suburbs west of the Tiber River, including the
VaticanVatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the capital city of Italy...
, were suffering from chronic water shortage. The new pope persuaded the Municipality of
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
to pay for the development of an acqueduct to provide a better water supply to that part of the city.
In 1612, the acqueduct was completed. It was initially called the Acqua Sabbatina or Acqua Bracciano, but was renamed Acqua Paola in honour of Paul V.
The fountain at the end of the acqueduct was referred to as "Il Fontanone" - the Big Fountain - because of its size. It was a the form of a free-standing triumphal arch constructed in white
marbleMarble is a non foliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for sculpture, as a building material, and in many other applications...
with
graniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their...
columns on high socles. Most of the material was pillaged from the
Forum of NervaThe Imperial Fora consist of a series of monumental fora , constructed in Rome over a period of one and half centuries, between 46 BC and 113 AD. The forums were the center of the Roman Republic and of the Roman Empire....
. Originally, it consisted of three large central arches, separated by columns, and a smaller one on each side. Water gushed into five basins at the base of each arch. The designer was Paul V's usual architect,
Flaminio PonzioFlaminio Ponzio was an Italian architect during the late-Renaissance or so-called Mannerist period, serving in Rome as the architect for Pope Paul V.Ponzio was born in Viggiù near Varese, and he died in Rome...
. Among the team of sculptors involved was
Ippolito BuzziIppolito Buzzi or Buzio , was an Italian sculptor from Viggiù, near Varese, in northernmost Lombardy, a member of a long-established dynasty of painters, sculptors and architects from the town, who passed his mature career in Rome...
, who was responsible for the Borghese coat-of-arms, flanked by the Borghese eagle and dragon and held aloft by putti, doubtless to Ponzio's design.
Then, in 1690,
Pope Alexander VIIIPope Alexander VIII , born Pietro Vito Ottoboni, was Pope from 1689 to 1691.-Early life:Pietro Ottoboni was born of a noble Venetian family, and was the son of Marco Ottoboni, chancellor of the Republic of Venice...
commissioned
Carlo FontanaCarlo Fontana was an Italian architect, who was in part responsible for the classicizing direction taken by Late Baroque Roman architecture.-Biography:...
, Giovanni's nephew, to enlarge the fountain. Carlo replaced the five small basins with an enormous single one which remains to this day.
In more recent times a small garden has been arranged, hidden behind the structure.
See also
- Frontinus
- List of Roman aqueducts by date
- Roman aqueducts
- Roman engineering
Romans are generally famous for their advanced engineering accomplishments, although some of their own inventions were improvements on older ideas, concepts and inventions. Technology for bringing running water into cities was developed in the east, but transformed by the Romans into a technology...
External links