Acueducto de los Milagros
38.924444444444 - 6.3480555555556220Koordinaten: 38 ° 55 ' 28 " N, 6 ° 20' 53 " W
Río Albarregas
The Acueducto de los Milagros was part of a Roman aqueduct ( aqueduct ), the ( Emerita Augusta) for centuries furnished the city of Merida in modern Spanish province of Extremadura with fresh water.
Location
The one already in Roman times at 5 ½ kilometers from Bach Las Pardillas made reservoir (Lago de Proserpina ) fed aqueduct crosses over a length of about 830 meters, the valley of the Río Albarregas in the northwest of the city of Mérida. From the center of the city, it is only about two kilometers (direct distance ) away.
History
Probably the aqueduct was built in the 1st century AD; in the 3rd century repairs were carried out - nevertheless the aqueduct fell into disuse after the Romans left. In the Middle Ages - perhaps even earlier - was the construction because of its equally bold and elegant architectural name Acueducto de los Milagros ( " Aqueduct of the Miracles ").
Building
Stone material and wall art
The pillars of the aqueduct were in a kind of casting technology with rubble and mortar (opus caementitium ), whose objective was poured into a growing upward wall shell exactly hewn gray granite stones (opus implectum ), intervening to documents found of fired bricks, which set themselves apart by their reddish color. The arches between piers are built of granite; however, they were usually veneered with brick. The granite stones were already conforming to standards hewn in the quarry and delivered ready to misalignment.
Architecture
The building originally consisted of over 100 pillars, which were stabilized on the outer sides by slightly angled buttresses. Between the more than 25 meters high main pillars arches were looking forward to a large extent the same amount which aufruhten on slightly projecting cornices and also served only the static stabilization. The actual water line was located above the highest arches and had a slope of less than one percent, which is obtained by a perfect measurement technique and the use of small - was achieved stones larger than pad for about a meter wide and - even irregularly shaped granite or sandstone assembled water channel were used, but none of this has survived.
Importance
Unlike most of aqueducts in the Roman Empire, which always dominated the horizontal, determine the aqueduct of Merida, the vertical pillars, the extremely light and elegant looking overall image. This unconventional design concept was probably centuries later imitated by the Arab builders of the Mezquita de Córdoba.
Other aqueducts in Mérida
In Roman times, Mérida had three aqueducts, one of which - the Aqua Augusta - has completely disappeared. In the neighborhood of San Lázaro, there are the remains of two other aqueducts: The three remaining pillars of about 15 meters high Acueducto de Rabo de Buey also date from Roman times and orient themselves in their architectural structure largely on Acueducto de los Milagros. However, the aqueduct had a horizontally mounted floor; only about putting the pillars of granite and bricks. The immediately next to it Acueducto de San Lázaro is a little more elegant building from the 16th century.
Acueducto de San Lázaro