Original scientific paper
A Fountain of the Diocletian ’s Imperial Palace
Radoslav Bužančić
orcid.org/0000-0003-4661-852X
; Konzervatorski odjel Ministarstva kulture u Trogiru
Abstract
During archaeological excavation of the southeast part of the Diocletian’s Palace, fragments of a concave stone dish were found, measuring 75 x 60 cm. Three smaller pieces were found in 1992 on the eastern side of the triclinium, on the site of an old episcopium which was founded, according to the chronicle of Thomas Archidiaconus, in the middle of the 7th century by bishop John of Ravenna. One of the fragments found in the more recent research of the complex of St Claire’s monastery added to the earlier found pieces of the concave part of the dish which originally stood on one leg. Stone fragments belonged to a fountain supported on one leg with integrated installations for flow of water. The water was pumped into the dish through the hollow in the centre of the column on which it stood, wherefrom it flowed through four holes in four identical and symmetrical flows into a shallow rectangle pool. Water under pressure must have flowed through a leaden pipe connected to the fountain through an opening at the bottom. The fountain can pretty surely be dated in the 4th century, connecting it to the time when the Palace had running water conveyed from the river Jadro by a monumental Diocletian’s aqueduct. In Diocletian’s time, a fountain with running water stood as a symbol of imperial power, a splendid example of engineering overcoming nature, and showed the Emperor’s need to compete in creation against his divine progenitor Jupiter. It was not only a useful comfort of an imperial apartment as Filarete the Renaissance theoretician of architecture called it in his treatise, but also a part of the decoration of imperial quarters which, apart from precious paneling, mosaics, frescos and costly art pieces and fabrics, were decorated with different machines put in motion by water such as water organs, horologues and Ktesibi pumps which imitated sounds of nature. The place where the fountain was found suggests that it might still have been in use after the Imperial period within the Split episcopium similarly to the fountain in the episcopium courtyard next to oratory A in Salona.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
63998
URI
Publication date:
30.5.2009.
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