Fountain house
A fountain house is a historical facility that was primarily used for the production and supply of drinking water .
history
Drinking water production
Originally, drinking water was often obtained from springs in water rooms or from the groundwater via drawing and pump wells . From the late Middle Ages, the construction of well houses began to improve the extraction of drinking water from the groundwater and its distribution within a locality.
The groundwater or spring water collected in a well was pumped into water towers , where it was collected in copper containers. The drinking water was then distributed in the village via pipes. The height of the tower gave the water the pressure required for distribution. The energy to drive the water pumps was obtained from water wheels . In the beginning these water wheels were driven by the water of the spring from which the drinking water was obtained. The efficiency of such a well was therefore very small. Later, existing or newly created mill streams were used to drive the water wheels. The drinking water was then obtained from the groundwater near the mill streams.
Due to the central water supply introduced in the 19th century, the wells lost their function. Most have been demolished and some have been converted into run-of-river power stations . Fountain houses that still exist today are usually under monument protection . B. the Hofbrunnwerk in Munich or the pumping stations of Nymphenburg Palace .
Some places called Brunnhaus, mainly in Bavaria and Tyrol, also remind of former or still existing well houses.
Other uses
The technology of the Brunnhäuser was also used in other areas, e.g. B. for the transport of brine in a brine line . Since the stretches to be bridged here were large, the brine was occasionally pumped to a higher level with hydropower in order - using the natural gradient - to flow to the next well. Natural obstacles such as B. ridges on the line could be overcome in this way. Although the water to be transported did not come from a well, such pumping stations were called wells. A well-preserved example of such a brine lifting system is the Klaushäusl Brunnhaus near Grassau , which is also a listed building .
Well houses are often referred to simply as houses with a well or a contained spring ( well room) without a pumping station to increase the pressure. An example of this is the fountain house of the convent inprüfunging .
See also
literature
- Christine Rädlinger : History of the Munich city streams . Ed .: City Archives Munich. Franz Schiermeier Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-9809147-2-7 .
