Caños de Carmona

Brief information

Caños de Carmona is important because it is not a museum fragment of antiquity, but the remains of an aqueduct that continued working until its demolition in 1912. The Roman aqueduct was later rebuilt under the Almohads, and because of this long life it should be read not as a ruin of a single era, but as an engineering system that was adapted to the city’s needs for centuries.

In its original form, the aqueduct was brick-built and consisted of about 400 arches on pillars; in some places, upper arcaded sections were added above them. It supplied water to a large reservoir by the former Puerta de Carmona gate, and from there throughout the city. An important detail is hidden in the very logic of how it worked: underground galleries served as a filter, so before its demolition the aqueduct was considered Seville’s highest-quality source of drinking water.

What to notice first

The surviving parts are useful to compare by looking at how a single engineering line endured different ways of being treated. Three five-arched sections remain in Seville: an arcade on Calle Cigüeña, a double arcade on Calle Luis Montoto near the intersection with Jiménez Aranda, and another arcade at the beginning of Luis Montoto. The double arcade is especially important as a reminder of the original form: the aqueduct was not always a single row of openings; in places it had a superstructure of additional arches.

The third section changes one’s view of the ruin most of all. It was built into the supports of the Puente de la Calzada railway bridge in 1930, and was only rediscovered after the bridge was dismantled in 1991. A niche was also found there where an image of the Virgin Mary had once stood; now that place is occupied by an azulejo tile image. In this way, the engineering detail simultaneously reveals the water supply system, a later urban alteration, and a trace of veneration added to the aqueduct after its Roman origin.