Pont D'Aël
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The Pont d'Aël () is a
Roman aqueduct The Romans constructed aqueducts throughout their Republic and later Empire, to bring water from outside sources into cities and towns. Aqueduct water supplied public baths, latrines, fountains, and private households; it also supported min ...
located in a village of the same name in the
comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...
of Aymavilles in
Aosta Valley The Aosta Valley ( ; ; ; or ), officially the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley, is a mountainous Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Fr ...
,
northern Italy Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...
. It was built in the year 3 BC for irrigation purposes and supplying water for the newly founded colony of Augusta Praetoria, which is now known as
Aosta Aosta ( , , ; ; , or ; or ) is the principal city of the Aosta Valley, a bilingual Regions of Italy, region in the Italy, Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel and the G ...
. The water was directed through a neighbouring
valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...
66 m above the floor of the Aosta valley, through a sophisticated system. The aqueduct is 6 km long in total. In addition to its unusual position, the construction, which was originally thought to be a three-story structure, shows more unique features such as a control corridor below the water line, as well as explicit private funding. Today, the water channel of the aqueduct serves as a public
walking trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. How ...
. Besides the Pont d'Aël, two other Roman bridges in the Aosta valley are still intact: the Pont-Saint-Martin in the town of the same name and the Pont de Pierre in
Aosta Aosta ( , , ; ; , or ; or ) is the principal city of the Aosta Valley, a bilingual Regions of Italy, region in the Italy, Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel and the G ...
.


Research and function

The bridge traverses the Grand Eyvia river at Pont d’Aël next to the entrance to the Cogne Valley, 8 km West of Aosta. Pingone recorded the first description, along with a sketch in the year 1550. Further illustrations were contributed by Baron de Malzen in 1826 and Aubert in 1860, which already showed the construction in its present form. Barocelli added measurements from 1864 after excavations on the eastern edge of the bridge in 1930. A complete survey and documentation was first carried out in 1996 by Mathias Döring. Here it was discovered that the bridge was used to transport iron ore, as previously thought, but belonged to the growing colony of Augusta Praetoria Salassorum (modern Aosta), used as an irrigation pipeline for agricultural land and a washery for the iron ore in Cogne. The idea of it being a water supply for Augusta Praetoria was ruled out, because the town itself is supplied from the nearby river Buthier. Nevertheless, the water may have also been used, in addition to its main economic function, to meet local drinking water needs.


Irrigation line

One end of the 6 km long pipeline opened onto a 200
hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...
farm situated in west Aosta, 50 to 150 m above the main river
Dora Baltea The Dora Baltea () or Doire Baltée () is a river in the Aosta Valley and in Piedmont, in northwestern Italy. It is a left-hand tributary of the Po and is about long. Name The river's Latin name was ''Duria maior'', ''Duria Baltica'' or ''Duri ...
using a gradient line from the neighbouring valley. On the way the water was diverted for ore washing, probably located near the village of Aymavilles. The technical difficulties in laying the pipeline along the steep rock faces of the Cogne valley were solved by the Roman engineers by using a gravity pipeline. The water from the Grand Eyvia, which is diverted 2.9 km above the Pont d’Aël, was directed downhill onto the steep slopes of the Cogne valley in open channels with an average gradient of 6.6 per mille.
Tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...
s or
qanat A qanāt () or kārīz () is a water supply system that was developed in ancient Iran for the purpose of transporting usable water to the surface from an aquifer or a well through an underground aqueduct. Originating approximately 3,000 years ...
s were formed due to the hard rockface. The line was cut as a half-gallery in the rocky slope, so that a parapet, up to 3 m high, was formed that ended in the bedrock on the valley side. The advantage of this method was that unlike a normal tunneling process, the tunneling work could start at any number of points because it was easily visible. This meant there was a significant decrease in the construction time. Such half-galleries in Roman engineering can only be found rarely in particularly rough terrain, such as at the water line of
Side Side or Sides may refer to: Geometry * Edge (geometry) of a polygon (two-dimensional shape) * Face (geometry) of a polyhedron (three-dimensional shape) Places * Side, Turkey, a city in Turkey * Side (Ainis), a town of Ainis, ancient Thessaly, ...
in
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. In the flatter areas they decided on a two to four meter wide terrace, through which the line ran as a rectangular brick canal with cover tiles. Overall the line traverses 2.25 km down a slope and then 0.6 km down a rocky path to Pont d'Aël. The other pipeline underneath the bridge could not be investigated because of construction and agricultural use; the end point could possibly be situated in the said irrigation zone in what is today known as the village of Aymavilles.


Construction

The and bridge is the only possible crossing point over the and up to
canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...
of the Grand Eyvia. Its only arch spans the gorge, which here is only 12 m wide but 66 m deep, with a span of 14.24 m. The bridge arch consists of a single key stone. On the lower floor of the bridge, which was once probably three stories high, a corridor served to verify the density of the overlying water pipe in antiquity. On both sides of this control corridor there are two rows of small windows from which the lower floor and the upper ceiling are illuminated so that the bridge keeper could quickly identify leaking water, which could have damaged the stonework with frost. Döring was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt the existence of the ancient aqueduct, where the trail runs today, on the basis of the altitude and course of the preserved remains of the walls, as well as a subsequent tunnel west of the bridge. It was 1.90 m high and 1.0 m wide. At the time the third floor was possibly an open walkway, which gave the building a total height of 22.15 m.


Bridge inscription

:IMP CAESARE AVGVSTO XIII COS DESIG :C AVILLIVS C F CAIMVS PATAVINVS :PRIVATVM Completed: :''Imperatore Caesare Augusto XIII consule designato'' :''Gaius Avillius Gaii filius Caimus Patavinus'' :''privatum'' Translated: :"When emperor Caesare Augustus was consul for the 13th time" :"Caius Avillius Caimus from
Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...
, son of Caius, uilt this bridge :"using private funds"


Sources

* *


See also

* Roman bridge * List of Roman bridges *
Roman architecture Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical ancient Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often con ...
*
Roman engineering The ancient Romans were famous for their advanced engineering accomplishments. Technology for bringing running water into cities was developed in the east, but transformed by the Romans into a technology inconceivable in Greece. The architecture ...


External links


Mathias Döring: Roman Irrigation Aqueduct in Aosta/Italy

Pont d'Aël : le pont-aqueduc romain

Aqueduc.info: L’histoire d’un aqueduc devenu chemin muletier
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ael, Pont d' Roman bridges in Italy Deck arch bridges Stone bridges in Italy Bridges completed in the 1st century BC Bridges in Aosta Valley Roman aqueducts in Italy 0s BC establishments in the Roman Empire