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The Fonte Gaia is a monumental fountain located in the Piazza del Campo in the center of Siena, Italy. The first fountain in the Piazza del Campo was completed in 1342, after hydraulic construction had led water to the site. Underground pipes brought water to the site from 25 kilometers away. [1] Legend holds that the fountain was met with much ...
Piazza del Campo is the main public space of the historic center of Siena, a city in Tuscany, Italy, and the campo regarded as one of Europe's greatest medieval squares. It is renowned worldwide for its beauty and architectural integrity. The Palazzo Pubblico and its Torre del Mangia, as well as various palazzi signorili surround the shell ...
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- Structure of The Underground Aqueduct System
- History
- Fountains
- General Bibliography
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It is named after the Latin word buctinus, used for the first time in 1226, and the word botte (Italian for "barrels"), which describes the shape of the arched walls, mostly made of terracotta, composing the roofs of the underground tunnels of the aqueduct. The underground canal system of the Bottini (singular Bottino ) consists of several waterway...
First excavations and birth of the medieval aqueduct system
The first underground watercourses already existed in the 4th century, during the Roman period, when Siena was still limited to the area of Castelvecchio. The Fontanella fountain is mentioned here in 394. The reason for the construction of the aqueduct system in the Middle Ages was mainly due to the shortage of water in the city of Siena, which experienced a period of strong population growth starting from the 11th century. They were first documented with their Latin name in 1226 as Buctinus....
Development and evolution of the Bottini
In order to finally lead the water to the central Piazza del Campo, the city government accepted on December 16, 1334, Jacopo di Vanni was entrusted with bringing the water from the veins to the north into the city and this, already in 1343, arrived in Piazza del Campo, the center of the life of the city. In 1343 the booty reached Fontebecci and an attempt was made to connect it to the water of the river Staggia, which is the real Quercegrossa. Since 1344, for the most difficult parts of the...
From the Florentine conquest of Siena to the unification of Italy
The air shafts (smiragli) outside the city walls proved to be problematic in times of war. Already in the run-up to the Battle of Camollia (1526) the conspirator Lucio Aringhieri tried to bring troops into the city via the Bottini. In the run-up to the Fiorentinesiege (1554–1555), the Bottini began to be walled up in March 1553 so that only water could flow under the barriers. 1. Schächte (smiragli) 2. Shaft (smiraglio) near San Benedetto (Acquacalda district), part of the Bottino di Fonte Ga...
The fountains belonging to the Bottini water system are divided into two categories. The main wells (fonti maggiori) include the wells that have larger water inlets, the secondary wells (fonti minori) include the wells whose water quantity and importance is much lower.
Antonio Maria Baldi: Gli antichi bottini senesi. In: Leonardo Lombardi, Gioacchino Lena, Giulio Pazzagli (Hrsg.): Tecnica di idraulica antica. Geologia dell'Ambiente, Supplemento al numero 4/2006 (...Comune di Siena (Hrsg.): I Bottini. Acquedotti medievali senesi. Edizioni Gielle, Siena 1984Comune di Siena, Santa Maria della Scala, Associazione La Diana (Hrsg.): A ritrovar la Diana. Protagon Editori, Siena 2001, ISBN 88-8024-074-9Duccio Balestracci, Laura Vigni, Armando Constantini: La memoria dell'Acqua. I bottini di Siena. Protagon Editori, Siena 2006Feb 28, 2024 · The restoration enriches the history of Fonte Gaia, which, the work of Sienese sculptor Tito Sarrocchi, replaced the original Fonte made by Jacopo della Quercia between 1409 and 1419 in Piazza del Campo in 1869. Over the years, the Fonte suffered rapid deterioration due to daily wear and tear in Piazza del Campo and the fragility of the ...
Jul 30, 2022 · The name Fonte Gaia meaning ‘Joyous Fountain’ was chosen to recall the great celebrations of the Sienese when they saw water arrive in Piazza del Campo for the first time. The monumental fountain was commissioned by the city to Jacopo della Quercia in 1409, and its execution was quite lengthy. The works lasted from 1414 to 1419.
In addition, we discuss why the first fountain, completed in 1342, was replaced less than a century after its construction. We then summarize the complex, decade-long evolution of della Quercia's work on the Fonte Gaia. Though the original contract of 5 December 1408 is now lost, surviving copies from 1412 and 1413, as well as drawings ...
The magnificent Fonte Gaia fountain, designed by Jacopo della Quercia around 1419, adorns the higher part of Piazza del Campo. The fountain we see today stands on the exact spot occupied by a previously existing fountain in 1346. The water that feeds the fountain travels from a spring in the nearby countryside through 25 kilometres of ...
