# General view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCHITECT, Italian]() - Date: 1251-1300 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary In Siena, due to the fact that the city was constructed on hills, water has always been a prime concern and even today, the city continues to thrive without a natural source of water \(for example, a river, as is common in many other cities\). That is why the people of Siena have always worked hard to find ways to bring water to the city centre. Underneath the streets of this medieval city lies many kilometres of tunnels, called "bottini." These underground tunnels were built centuries ago and have brought water from the surrounding countryside to the city since the 12th century. Many fountains have monumental architectural structures to underline the importance of the place where they were built. Solid brick construction, and the willingness to use the pointed arch which is a constant feature of non-military construction, are characteristic of the long line of the city fountains. These were all built in the form of vaulted chambers with arched openings. The dark and massive Fontebranda, its simple pointed openings set within relieving arches, leads the way. The earlier Sienese formula is modified in the Fonte d'Ovile of 1262, and the pattern is then followed in the Fonte Nuova d'Ovile, begun in 1298. Here the massive brick dividing column of the Fonte d'Ovile, and the plain rectangular section of the arches, common to all the earlier fountains, give way to an extensive series of decorative mouldings that lend an air of solemn, almost ecclesiastical sophistication to this, the most imposing of the later Sienese fountains. ## Related artworks - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Apse of a basilica]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Basilica di Sant'Antonio: Chiostro del Noviziato]() - [Basilica Santi Nereo e Achilleo]() - [Ca' Foscari: Façade]() - [Chamber of the millers]() - [Chiesa dell'Incoronata: Interior of the dome]() - [Cloister gallery]() - [Detail of the façade]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()