Heritage100

Aqueduct of Segovia

A Roman aqueduct built without a drop of mortar that carried water for nearly 1,900 years.

Plaza del Azoguejo 1, 40001 Segovia, Spain

Then & Now

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Today
Aqueduct of Segovia
PastPresent

The story of this place

Raised around the late 1st or early 2nd century AD, probably under Trajan or Hadrian, the Aqueduct of Segovia carries water 15 kilometres from the Frío River to the city, its final stretch a 28-metre-high double arcade of some 20,400 granite blocks held together by nothing but gravity and precision—no mortar at all. It kept delivering water into the 20th century. Local legend claims a young water-carrier girl bargained with the Devil to build it overnight in exchange for her soul, then was saved when dawn broke one stone short. Battered by Moorish raids and restored by Isabella's masons, it still frames the city's central square.