AQUEDUCT OF THE BAÑALES OF UNCASTILLO (TARRACA)
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AQUEDUCT OF THE BAÑALES OF UNCASTILLO (TARRACA) |
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A dam –that was covered and filled up with sediments- and an aqueduct were built to supply water to the town of Tarraca. 4 sections and 32 pilasters remain from the aqueduct; they trace a curve to save the depression of the “Pilarones”. Its building is dated in the I century a. C. and it supplied water not only to the thermae and to the urban nucleus of Tarraca, but probably to the irrigation in the area. |
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(Photo: Roberto Lérida Lafarga 3/11/2007) |
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The structure of the pilasters is based in sandstone blocks, decreasing from the bottom to the top, superposed and encased in stone. In the upper part of every pilaster there is a hole that crosses it and where trunks were inserted to support the specus, the channel –here probably made in wood-, where the water passed through. The last and highest sandstone block in every pilaster was bigger to support better the specus, overhanging from the pilaster, and was carved with the case of the channel.
Detalle del cajeado del specus en el último sillar de los pilares. (Photo: Roberto Lérida Lafarga 3/11/2007) |
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(Photo: Roberto Lérida Lafarga 3/11/2007) |
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The course of the aqueduct started in the river Arba, in Luesia, in the called “Devil’ Bridge”, near Malpica; in the hills of Biota the water was collected and distributed by a dam; finally, part of the aqueduct must have been dug out in the rocks. |
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(Photo: Roberto Lérida Lafarga 3/11/2007) |
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Sources: - ORTIZ PALOMAR, M.ª Esperanza y PAZ PERALTA, Juan Ángel: Los Bañales (Uncastillo), Los Atilios, La Sinagoga (Sádaba), Zaragoza, 2005 - ORTIZ PALOMAR, M.ª Esperanza: “Los Bañales (Uncastillo). El tiempo ausente del espacio vigente. Baños Romanos”, en AA. VV.: ArquEJEAlogía. Ejea de los Caballeros y las Cinco Villas, de la Prehistoria a la Antigüedad Tardía, Zaragoza, 2006 - BELTRÁN LLORIS, Miguel: “El agua profana en la cuenca media del valle del Ebro: AQUA DUCTA. La captación del agua, presas, embalses, conducciones”, en AA. VV.: Aquaria: Agua, territorio y paisaje en Aragón, Zaragoza, 2006 |
