Park fountain in palace garden
(Rundale)
During the Baroque period water presence in gardens always was the integral part of the landscape
In 1735/1736 Architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli developed the ensemble plan for the Rundale Palace where three basins with fountains were represented. The central basin is round, but side basins have hexagonal shape. During the Duke’s life the basins did not have fountains and this probably is related to the complicated water supply system that would be required on the flat terrain of the central Latvia.
The central basin remained the entire 19th and 20th century. However, in addition to typical 18th century borders it was made deeper and its domed bottom was laid with clay bricks. There was stone heap in the center where in the beginning of 20th century according to the legends Countess Shuvalov placed clay sculptures.
Thanks to the financing of the European funds and work of several specialists, finally the fountain was made. Basins were reconstructed according to the plan of the Architect Rastrelli. For construction of the fountain technological materials were taken from the factory Oase, borders were carved from dolomite from Saaremaa but the flat bottom of the basin was laid with polished Italian granite plates in two colors.
Park fountain
(Skriveri arboretum)
In 2007 after long-term downtime the fountain in the Skriveri arboretum was reconstructed and returned to life. It is located on the side of the motorway Riga-Daugavpils. During the construction of the fountain its shape was maintained. The central fountain is equipped with a decorative element. The underground pump-room was constructed for placing of the equipment servicing the fountain. At the moment only the central nozzle of the fountain is operated and during the dark time of the day it is lighted with underwater headlight. The object was constructed with the idea to supplement the fountain with additional nozzles and light objects without substantial materials and work investments in the future.
Fountain was built and started it’s life in 1897 that was three years before the castle was built on the banks of the River Daugava and it operated based on water drifting principles from the artificially made Round Lake (LV - Apaļais ezeriņš) that was made in Hill Manor (LV - Kalna muiža) located 17m above the fountain level that is very interesting fact as the fountain is located 17m above the level of the River Daugava.
