We have been saving this one up for a while. It started with the first picture taken just outside a church a couple of blocks from where we live. We speculated on whether it was for feet washing - too far off the ground - an outdoor sink that might have predated the rest of the neighbourhood and provided water and washing facilities for the 'clerics' and their neighbours??
Who knows, but it started us collecting pictures of water delivery systems everywhere we have travelled in Greece. Some are associated the churches or monasteries, many are simply on roadsides in remote places making us assume they were for watering horses travelling long routes between towns, and over mountains. Maybe they simply formalize a place where some spring water rises to the surface, providing collection points and saving the surrounding area from being a swamp...
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| This one is at Saint Basil's big church at the top of our hill (so also Piraeus). |
In church grounds in the Zagori region |
| Roadside in mountains in North Greece |
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| On a walking track between Papigo and Little Papigo |
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| A rather grand affair on the mountain track F hiked above Little Papigo. |
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| Diakopto |
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| Opposite the railway station Diakopto |
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| Nafplio |
they are all very interesting and have never seen anything like them here. most of them have faucets so my guess is they were put there for people who had no water sources in their homes to come and get water to take home. they are not fountains or drinking fountains, so that is why I think my theroy. whatever they are for they make great phtotos. Plus to me they are quite beautiful to look at.
ReplyDeleteI too notice these in france - often the pipes have a figurehead too which I can't identify despite researching it. Many of these look like lions - in France they seem to me more like river gods???
ReplyDeleteNear my house is Evian where they bottle their famous water - the spring is actually round the back of the high street and hoteliers go every day to fill up their fancy bottles with the stuff.
Hari Om
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent photo project!!! Water fountains were often provided before household plumbing became both normal and affordable. We have one in Dunoon... near a church. It was provided 'for the public' by an ex mayor. (Thought I had it on the blog but have lost half an hour searching without success!) Anyway, I think this could become quite the hobby while on travels... hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
Love all your photos. That's a wonderful collection of taps. I know some were used in days gone by for gathering drinking water before each house had their own tap. My husband and his sister used to fill big cans of water for the house before going to school. But those water sources are no more on Poros
ReplyDeleteThere are two fountains left on Poros, one at the monastery and one on our mountain road. Many people still fill up containers with this water, my sis in law for one, because they say it does not have chemicals like the tap water. it's tested now and again and now and again it's labelled as undrinkable. I prefer the chemicals. The monastery tap has almost dried up
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating topic to collect photos of. I have several 'themes' that I like to collect photos for, including drinking fountains, unusual signposts, cakes, and public toilet buildings! :)
ReplyDeletePublic toilets?!! You would love one in Whitechapel in London - used to be an underground public toilet, closed and later redeveloped into a curry restaurant. The bit above ground looks like a cross between the Taj Mahal and an Arabic palace (lots of blue mosaic tiling and gilded onion domes).
DeleteYou kinda threw me with the horses?
ReplyDeleteProbably more like donkey drinking stations lol
Or maybe for the goats?
There definitely are lots of drinking stations in Greece
The rural ones often have stock troughs with them so we assume the local herders use them for goats and sheep too.
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