El Acueducto de Segovia

》The Aqueduct of Segovia

It was built during the second half of the 1st century A.D. under the rule of the Roman Empire and supplied water from the Frío River to the city into the 20th century. The remaining portion of the structure stands 28.5 meters tall at its maximum height and nearly 6 additional meters deep in the main section. Along 14 kilometers of rolling landscape, the aqueduct adjusts to the contours of the valley, hills, and city and creates a sense of grandeur and monumentality. The pillars and arches of its tall, two-story arcades are made of solid blocks of stone fit closely together with little or no mortar, and the lower arches alternate in height according to the structure’s adaptation to the contours of the land. It is made of 167 arches fashioned from the granite stone of the Guadarrama Mountains.

Detrimental reconstruction occurred in the 15th and 16th centuries, and not until the 1970s and 1990s was there urgent conservation intervention. The aqueduct was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1985 and stands prominently in the urban landscape of Segovia. The Aqueduct of Segovia remains one of the most intact Roman aqueducts in Europe.

》Perhaps the least known story surrounding this magnum opus of the 1st or 2nd century is the legend of the serving girl who used to climb, every day, to the very top of the mountain and return with her pitcher full of water. One day, fed up of this daily toil, she made a wish to the Devil, whom she asked to build some means by which she would no longer need to go up and down every morning with her pitcher. One night Lucifer granted her wish, asking for her soul in return if he managed to finish the aqueduct before the cockerel crowed.

The girl agreed and the Devil began to build the aqueduct but the girl regretted her decision. Just as he was about to lay the last stone, the cockerel crowed, meaning the Devil lost his wager and the girl kept her soul. In the gap that remained, the statue of the Virgin of Fuencisla, patroness of the city, stands today.Read more