Original scientific paper
The Miracle of Water: Prolegomena to the Renaissance Water Supply of Dubrovnik
Relja Seferović
Mara Stojan
Abstract
Although the evidence on the continuous settlement on the site of Dubrovnik fails to concur with old historiographic assertions that the location was deficient in the water sources, the fact is that many a century passed until the problem of supplying Dubrovnik with water was approached systematically. Poor public hygiene, frequent outbreaks of pestilence, the threat of siege, along with the increasing industrial activity based on cloth manufacture and mills prompted the Ragusan authorities in the early fifteenth century to consider the construction of an aqueduct. The city government decided to go through with this capital project by employing Andreuzzo de Bulbito from Apulia and master Onofrio della Cava from Naples, chief architect-engineer. Despite considerable technical difficulties in the course of the construction due to the small gradient, the Italian master managed to bring large supplies of excellent water into the city before the set deadline. The result was a magnificently designed aqueduct that served the growing urban needs of Dubrovnik, contributing to its great material prosperity.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
7757
URI
Publication date:
23.5.2006.
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