Hello, friends. The idea to write this article arose while working on an article on illumination, in particular in Versailles in the 18th century. One interesting material began to come across:
It seems nothing unusual, beautiful landscaping and fountains, it could very well have been in the 17th century, according to the dating of the engraving. But the fence attracted attention. If it was at that time a royal palace, what is it for? There were probably so many guards there that any penetration of outside hooligans would be impossible in principle. If you look closely, the fence is much taller than human height, is made on a two-stage foundation and seems to consist of one lattice without supporting pillars. Where is the logic? If this is a security engineering structure without the foreseen presence of sentries, then anyone who wished could climb up on this lattice and shoot, for example, from a bow, if at that time there was nothing more serious. Even probably through the bars could do it. It's strange. And a fountain. It's big enough. What pumping equipment drove water under such pressure in the 17th century? And where did this water flow? If we assume that there was recirculation, then pumps are indispensable. Their existence in the 17th century is, to put it mildly, doubtful. All this could have been ignored if these fountains did not occupy several hectares on the territory of the Versailles palace complex.
This is the famous Apollo Bath fountain complex. Again we see the fence and the forest surrounding it. Judging by the size of the trees, the forest is large enough.
This is the fountain complex des domes, literally the Domes. What kind of domes can there be? There is also a fence and trees around. The fountain, oddly enough, is fenced with a railing.
Promotional video:
This is the Tuby Jean-Baptiste fountain complex. Literally translated as Jean-Baptiste's trumpet. Now it is a complex of Three Fountains. The same fence, forest and fountains, only there are additional obelisks and some stepped pyramids. And a bunch of little fountains. So how did this all work?
Let's look at the plan of the park of Versailles from the 1964 edition of "l'art des jardins"
And another plan from the same edition, but earlier, obviously copied from some historical document with an unidentified year. And at the same time, let's see how our fountain complexes looked in the lower plan.
As you can see, almost everything has changed in the upper plane. The lower plan is drawn in sufficient detail, there even dots mark all the obelisks. But nothing fits perfectly with our engravings. There are also engravings, but worse quality:
This is the complex of the Three Fountains, which was earlier on the old plan, the second square on the left in the upper row. Actually, he's in the main photo. Now it actually does not exist at all, and its name was transferred to the Tuby Jean-Baptiste complex. Please note that the structure has cascades, it was several meters deep (or in height, it is not entirely clear from the picture).
This is the complex of the Water Theater, which is not on the plan of 1964, it was restored quite recently. It's a dark story with him. According to some reports, it was demolished in 1775, why is not clear. Until recently, this place was a regular lawn. Please also note that there are also cascades here, and the structure too had a height or depth of several meters.
This is a complex of fountains du marais, literally translated as swamp. Indeed, there is a similarity. The fountains were from the edges or one edge, the water collected in the center. This fountain is not in this form now, it is located opposite the Apollo bath and is very much modified.
Also note that all three fountains have pyramid-shaped obelisks. And they are strictly ordered. Judging by the way the artist scrupulously sketched the forest, there is no reason to draw a conclusion about mistakes in such details as the pyramids. They really were once. But what happened? Why have all the fountain complexes been rebuilt? Knowing the Europeans' thrift towards cultural monuments, we can say that man has nothing to do with it. Everything is again trite as always. All the fountains in their original form were covered by a mudflow. If, according to sources, the Water Theater complex was demolished in 1775, then this is what happened. Even if there could be confusion in calculating the years, then in any case not earlier than this period. Fountains, which have a sufficiently large height difference between the cascades, simply became impractical to dig. With a slight difference in height, they restored them as best they could, but there is a suspicion that they were dug up, dismantled, the displaced soil was thrown back into the pit and the fountain was reassembled in a new place, as best they could, according to old drawings.
Please note that there are not even those similar to multi-stage fountains. And everything is approximately at the same horizontal level.
As you know, the Palace of Versailles was acquired in the 1630s by Louis XIII, ready-made from third parties. Subsequent rulers only restored it or slightly changed it. And by whom and when was it built? It is hard to say. The building and the park have no clear orientation to the cardinal points. If we compare the orientation of the palace with the orientation of old buildings, for example, in St. Petersburg, there is also no analogy. But the scale of the development is impressive. However, back to the fountains.
As we have already found out, the fountains had strange details, namely, lattice fences, obelisks and pyramids. And also a dense and high forest around. Judging by the way this forest was drawn in the smallest detail, all other details are also drawn in sufficient detail and there is no point in not trusting the artist. Many engravings show that the fence is clearly not a vegetable design, it is not a boxwood wall, as it stands now. This means that it turns out that in the 1st half of the 17th century, all the fountains looked exactly the same as on the engravings. Clears were cut down in the forest for them, the sites themselves were cleared from the forest inside the perimeter of the fence and began to be used. But, as mentioned earlier, for the operation of such structures, powerful pumping devices were needed. Naturally, there were none at that time. And there were simple artesian wells, which, according to the sources,it was first used in France and for a long time. And there were underground pipes in this system for drainage, first into the main canal, then into the Bois de Satori river. As soon as the drainage system was violated, the river became shallow, now it is barely visible on the map.
Actually, what is it all about? Probably, to understand, you need to remember the past articles about the stars-fortresses. There were also artesian springs, the purpose of which, among other things, was to release ether into the surrounding space. Special devices accumulated this ether, they stood at the edges of reservoirs in vases. Obelisks were a kind of domed structures, the task of which was to create resonant electrical vibrations in a certain range. Due to the special arrangement of the obelisks and ether accumulators, a field was created around, which, definitely, somehow had a beneficial effect on the human body. The effect was the same as in temples, only in this case in an open space. If the task of the fortified stars was rather to organize communication with adjacent structures,then the problem here was somewhat different. Each structure was isolated and functioned in its own way. And in fact, it is the same star-fortress, only in a slightly different design form.
There are even such documents:
The author of the drawing meticulously redraws all the details from nature, indicating all distances. Everything has already been built. These were the baths of Apollo. Or maybe they once swam in them, if the climate was warmer at that time. But that's another story.
Until next time.
PS Our Peterhof also resembles something like that. But both Versailles and Peterhof have frosty winters and fountains cannot function without the risk of freezing. So about the climate, most likely it was.