Aqueduct of Segovia
The aqueduct crosses the middle of Segovia on double arches of granite up to 28 metres high. The blocks are laid without mortar. It carried water to the city for centuries and is one of the best-preserved Roman engineering works.
The aqueduct was probably built at the end of the 1st or the beginning of the 2nd century AD, under the emperors Domitian, Nerva or Trajan; the exact date is uncertain. The water was taken from the river Frío in the mountains, about 15 kilometres away, and carried in a channel to the city. There it had to cross a valley to reach the high rock on which the castle and the old town stand. The bridge is built of undressed local granite, and its roughly 20,000 blocks are held in place by their own weight alone.
The visible section is about 800 metres long and has just over 160 arches. Where the valley is deepest the arches rise in two tiers and reach a height of about 28 metres. The piers taper upwards, which gives the bridge a light appearance despite the weight of the stone. The water ran in a channel at the top. Above the tallest arches is a rectangular panel where an inscription was once fixed; only the holes for the bronze letters remain. The niches now hold statues of saints that were put up much later.
In the 11th century some of the arches were destroyed, and they were rebuilt in the 15th century under Ferdinand and Isabella. The aqueduct carried water to Segovia for many hundreds of years. In the 20th century traffic and exhaust fumes threatened the stone, and car traffic under the arches has since been stopped. The old town of Segovia and its aqueduct became a World Heritage Site in 1985. The bridge has become the city’s symbol and appears on its coat of arms.