THE DIANA, AN ANCIENT SIENESE MYTH . . .

According to the late fourteenth-century chronicle of Bisdomini, in 1176 the friars of the Carmine Monastery dug in the vicinity of Castelvecchio and found a vein of water of some importance, a discovery that for a long time legitimated later searches. The Sienese squandered time and money for centuries in the search of this legendary underground river, to which they gave the name "Diana," even though no historical records ever proved its existence.

THE FOUNTAINS OF SIENA AND THE IMPORTANCE OF WATER

The importance of water for people has always been fundamental. The uses to which it is put are varied and include those of crafts and industries (for grinding grain, working skins and leather, for fulling wool, and later on, making paper), those to do with eating (to drink and to water animals), and those pertaining to agriculture and to hygiene. Water came to be used to extinguish fires, which in ancient times, unfortunately were frequent. It was not an accident that many cities (Rome, Florence, Turin, Paris, London, etc.) were located on the banks of a river, which, by itself, would suffice to provide water for all the functions of which we have spoken.

Siena, instead, was born on top of three hills in a site less unhealthy and more defensible from attacking enemies, but very distant from major watercourses. The rivers around Siena, in fact, are either distant (as in the case of the Merse, Elsa, and Ombrone), or if closer, have a meager flow of water during certain periods of the year (as is the case with the Arbia, Tressa, Staggia, and Riluogo).

From this shortage in the eleventh and twelfth centuries arose the necessity for the Sienese, dominated as they were by notable development, both economic and demographic, to resort to the construction of fountains along the perimeter of the city. These fountains would exploit existing veins or augment old fountains and wells surviving from the Roman or Etruscan eras. The fountains well served the various uses mentioned above, as much the large basins that collected the water, watered the animals, were very useful in case of fire. Such basins allowed many people to fill the earthenware jugs simultaneously, which would have been impossible if they had tried to all use a single spigot.
Regarding the artisanal uses, the scarcity of water in Siena caused certain activities to move out of the city, and being forced to relocate to points along the Arbia river towards Cuna, or Monteroni, or in the Merse Valley, toward Brenna; only the smallest workshops remained within the walls of he city, those for whom it was sufficient to use the various fountains (such as Fontebranda, Follonica, etc.).

The Sienese fountains distinguish themselves from Greek and Roman ones because the latter, being used only for drinking, were constituted of various spouts and embellished with various, often zoomorphic, decorations. The collection basins in our city, serving a multiplicity of uses, are characterized instead by their essential functionality: for this reason the fountains were for the most part subdivided into three collection basins, located at different heights. The highest one, which received the "new water" that flowed from the wall, contained what today we would call "running water," to be used for drinking and cooking. The second basin, fed by the overflow from the first, being less clean, was used to water the animals. In the third, placed at the lowest level, one could wash laundry without risk of polluting the other basins. The final outlet then, came to be used for minor industrial purposes (to cool whetstones, for example), or to irrigate the surrounding fields. The two basins also served as perennial reserves of water in case of fire.

It was in the valleys between the three hills on which the city rises that one could find the location of the fountains: this was because the water that flowed was collected from little veins in the subsoil, through subterranean aqueducts that, at times, extended for kilometers from the fountains they fed. It is obvious that lacking adequate hydraulic technology, the water could flow only be gravity, from higher to lower points, and thus the final outlet (the fountain) had to be in the lowest position.
Initially the fountains were all situated outside the city walls. However, the walls eventually expanded to encompass almost all the fountains.
With regard to the aesthetic and architectural characteristics, we will note that the fountains were, over time, covered with vaulted roofs. This was to protect the water collected in the basins, either from atmospheric agents (such as rain, wind . . .) or the carelessness of the people who were accustomed, as they are today, to throwing garbage from the embankments into the fountains at their base.

Furthermore, they began to construct crenellations over the vaults, thus rendering the fountains true advanced fortifications (outworks), that is they became the outer gateways or guard posts for the city. This was done especially after 1270 in order to avert the revenge of Charles of Anjou (Carlo d'Angiò) who at that time was destroying the Maremma. In addition, more or less permanent garrisons were assigned to the principal fountains to defend them from enemies, who, if the were to destroy the fountains and cut off the water supply, could easily bring the Sienese population to its knees. Beside the soldiers, there were paid custodians charged with the task of looking after each fountain and its respective aqueduct, and to make sure the law was obeyed, which used to be at times very severe in so far as water was believed to be an indispensable natural resource; for example there were the prohibitions against polluting the water, against throwing refuse in the water, against entering the aqueducts, and so on. Sometimes, if the offense was particularly grave, the accused could be threatened with the death penalty: in fact, there is the story of a woman, accused in 1262 of being a witch, and of having sought to poison the water, who was flayed and quartered in front of the assembled citizenry.