Lisbon Aquaduct

The"Aqueduct of the Free Waters"is a historic aqueduct in the city of Lisbon. Water was in scarce supply even for Lisbon's earliest inhabitants. The Tagus estuary bordering their settlement was too brackish to be potable due to tidal influx of seawater. People used to bath 3 times in their lives - at birth, before marriage and at death.

King John V decided to build an aqueduct to bring water from sources in the parish of Caneças, in the modern municipality of Odivelas. The project was paid for by a special sales tax on beef, olive oil, wine, and other products.

After delivering its first water in 1748, the aqueduct fed a whole new network of fountains built in the city simply by gravity.Read more