18 - Aqueduct castellum divisorium

Dating from the beginning of the 1st century AD, the tower that provided for the distribution of water is a quadrangular reservoir where water brought by the aqueduct was received. From this structure, and simply by the effects of gravity, lead pipes and masonry channels made of stone and lime mortar distributed the water throughout the city, supplying fountains, public and private buildings. The water was collected from a spring located about 3km from Conimbriga, in the current village of Alcabideque, where the Romans built a large tank and a tower with an ingenious decantation system, whose remains are quite well preserved and can be visited. From there, the water was piped to the city through an aqueduct whose route was underground for most of its length. Only in the last hundred meters of its route, well inside the city, was the water chanel supported by a system of arches and pillars, which corresponds to the traditional image we have of aqueducts from Roman times and whose construction typology has remained almost to this day. This infrastructure, of vital importance to Conimbriga, would have ceased to function at a fairly late time, perhaps in the 7th century AD, being a very important fact in the decline of urban life.