Francesco Fiumalbi
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speak of "sources" in San Miniato is extremely difficult. In the recent book by Delio Fiordispina and Manuela Paredes "Wells, wells, cisterns and aqueducts, FM Publishing, the authors have sought to address the topic in a relatively large time span, from the 700 at the beginning '900, without touching the real heart of the matter.
The question that arises almost spontaneously, is: how did the inhabitants of San Miniato hill to get water in late medieval times?
Could happen with all supply wells and tanks?
Now we need to make some logical considerations. Who could afford, say from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, a well or cistern? The answer is quite simple: the haves and the leaders of the imperial first, and then city. Certainly not the poor people, who lived mostly in modest houses and had no sure the availability of space for economic and develop such systems collect water. The procurement was done by force, but through these systems, at least not alone. Here our interest focuses on some sites, now abandoned, which once had to ensure the water supply to the population of San Miniato: the three sources, each for each "third". In this article we will complete the so-called "Sources with the Fairies", leaving to others the discussion of other interventions.
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Sources with Fate, is actually a natural spring, which was the subject of systemic importance for a better use of water. Index of these water projects is also the name they are called: why they are called in the plural and singular? Why are designated as "sources" and not as "Source"?
To answer this question, it must explain its functioning. The source itself is only one, but structures were built around it that, for the time, were quite complex. The water that flowed on the surface was collected in two pools, arranged by special side rooms and covered with barrel vaults. These basins were headed to a room, from which material was taken from the water through special ports, certainly more than one. Also the two large side tanks were filled with special smaller tanks, placed outside.
The hypothesis advanced by Dilva Lots in San Miniato in Time "about the presence of four tubes is not confirmed. The structure is still clearly with three arches. The photograph published by him in support of the thesis that analysis does not allow that, in the field, was shown to be negative.
Block diagram of the Sources to Make
Sources with Fate, fornix input
The initial thesis that sees the structure as an important source for water supply is supported by the size and shape of the building. Here's why.
Sources can be found at the end of the Fairies a little road that goes down below the current sources via the Fairies, the road leading to the new car park with lift. It 'an area that has northern exposure and therefore less hospitable because less illuminated by the sun, especially in winter and where the pounding wind. In fact it is an area virtually uninhabited, uncultivated and left to the forest. It 'too far from major roads. We find in an isolated, inhospitable and difficult to access. How do you explain, however, that around the source was built such a structure? The answer is easy: the thirst.
Evidently other sources, wells and tanks present in San Miniato were not sufficient for the needs of public water sources that are also used to Fate. It is not even a permissible agricultural use, because the North orientation does not facilitate the cultivation and there are no channels for this purpose. The only plausible reason is that the fortified town of San Miniato had damn need of water, so that people would be willing to walk a lot 'out of town just to procure. As mentioned Delio Fiordispina and Manuela Paredes in their above-mentioned publication, San Miniato throughout the 800 had problems with lack of water. The number of inhabitants had risen and stood at 3000-4000. The same number, Francesco Salvestrini in a recent conference organized by the Architecture and Territory "Welcome Lanfranco," he referred to as the population of the village of San Miniato before the plague of 1348. The problems of water supply had to be more or less the same. Hence the need to maximize the three sources of the hill. In 800, however, the issue will be addressed by building an aqueduct and large public tanks.
Sources with Fate, internal
Jonathan Giglioli is leading the way
exploration, is the bravest!
Jonathan Giglioli indicates the opening that makes
in communication with the source with the settling tank
How one can easily see from this last image, inside the notch with the source itself, there are also some small stalactites, actually they are called "spaghetti." Huge limestone deposits are synonymous with large amounts calcium in the water, which for centuries has deposited on the surfaces through which flowed.
structure built around the source consists of elements in brick. Indoor plastered with mortar, of course, a hydraulic binder, that is waterproof (unlike, for example, the most famous "lime"). It is not possible to date this artifact, although from sources we have news since the Middle Ages. The bricks used for construction, visible in the arches are well made, with a homogeneous mixture, free of impurities and perfectly cooked in the furnace. This particular write assume the building from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, not before.
It 'most likely to be known as Lots Dilva says in "Time in San Miniato, since Etruscan times. The structure is definitely not as old, at least not in the forms and materials, perhaps due to various successive operations in the Middle Ages, although the presence of all that limestone inside or outside it, suggests several centuries of continuous sedimentation of the mineral .
deposit of limestone exterior
curious is, without doubt, the name. Why "Sources to Do?
In his novel Cornelius Smith attributes this designation to the two sisters who go to the aid of Ciccioni and Mangiadori who were injured during the battle. Thanks to the water source, the two were soon restored.
Obviously Cornelius Smith has worked extensively with the imagination, but we can not exclude that the inspiration for the story has no basis in the folk tradition of San Miniato. The "Fate" inevitably recall the world of magic and the same story attributed to the water source of the miraculous. E ' possible that the spring water has healing powers?
Rossano Nistri, in his article "Waters of the living waters of the dead. Mythologies around the water sources to Do in San Miniato "published in the Bulletin of the Academy of Euteleti No 76, 2009, raises the same question. The answer is no confirmation of this and many non-witnesses reported. That is, if such powers were there really had to be reported in the scientific and geographical narrative. But nobody has ever occupied the Fate of sources, indicating that these waters have no interest, except to be commonly used. Who could deal with it (like in his Repetti Gazetteer of Tuscany, in the Schivardi guide to mineral water, in the Jervis positivist compendium of geology in the Italian territory and the San Miniato chemical Gioacchino Taddei author of an important study on the source at Santa Gonda) did not do so. Therefore, excluding the so-called "placebo effect", the sources from Do not have any healing power. Are very rich in calcium!
The tank right side
the same red Nistri goes on to note that there is a swarm in Tuscany Places with names related to "Fate", the "Nymphs" and the like. Just to name a few, among the most famous, remember the "Sources to Make" Poggibonsi, but there are similar names in Certaldo, Gambassi, Fiesole, Cetona, Pienza, Montepulciano and many other municipalities. The lowest common denominator of all these places to be found clearly in the cultural background of the people who lived in Tuscany. A sort of reflection of pagan traditions, but also the need to give a name and understandable form of what the Romans called "genius loci", which is a bit 'reductively we could put into the "spirit of place".
Rossano Nistri I think in the above article captures very well here, and we report this to his own words: " genius loci, the spirit of that land, that to survive, it becomes god underground water because it is itself springs from the bowels of the earth, but also because it undergoes the reversal of demonization, all'affarmarsi of a new deity, being immortal ... ".
Today, this spirit is perceptible. We modern "rationalist" to define an emotion like that, we use the term "suggestion" suggestion for a site located in the middle of what has every appearance of being a lucus , a sacred grove, though more traditionally popular in reality. As we said in META' PHYSICAL LOCATION, this power is to be found, perhaps, the greatest sources of psychological distance. We get only one who goes in search, otherwise nobody will ever happen, even accidentally. And just ask yourself this research that generates mystic soul that taste evoked by the same term of "Fate".
The source itself,
where with very little light, there is growing an aquatic plant
significant is the memory of the place told by Don Luciano Marrucci. He points out that the sources from Fate was the place where you could spend some 'alone, alone or with few friends. In order to study or just to rest, for surely dreaming. That fact is also confirmed by Rossano Nistri.
Surrounded by oaks and locust trees, there, alone, as in centuries past. A place made to be searched. It found only by those who really chases, even by those who seek only a few minutes of quiet harmony.
The article was written thanks to research in situ Rita Matilde Costagli together with the small, true forerunner to future shipments, which was attended by Francesco Fison, Jonathan Giglioli, Luciano Marrucci and Francis Fiumalbi.
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