Hike to Acueducto & Túneles de Peña Cortada, Valencia, Spain

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The Roman Aqueduct of Peña Cortada, also Aqueduct of La Serrada or Aqueduct of La Serranía runs through the municipalities of Tuéjar, Chelva, Calles and Domeño, in the Province of Valencia. Although a recent publication by the archaeologist and doctor in architecture of the Polytechnic University of Valencia Miquel R. Martí Maties, during the VI International Congress of Roman Engineering, extends its route to the same Valencian capital, with a total distance of 98.6 km. This aqueduct was drawn with different systems of water pipe that since its origins in the waterwheel of the Tuéjar River , saves great topographic stumbling blocks. The length of the remains found is 28.6 kilometers, and their size is comparable to the most important Roman aqueducts in Spain: Segovia , Les Ferreres de Tarragona and Los Milagros de Mérida . Two types coexist in the Peña Cortada aqueduct, the bridge aqueduct and the viaduct aqueduct. In the first, the already resolved techniques of the bridge and the honorific or triumphal arch that are used here are used above all to save the Rambla de Alcotas and the ravine of Cueva del Gato with the monumentality required by its authors to magnify the power of its empire. In the second type of aqueduct with free circulation by canal, canalis structilis , the Roman technical domain in terms of water conduction systems is displayed here, in its section excavated in rock. The total route of the aqueduct is not known, although in all probability it can be ruled out that its destination was Sagunto , which had its own water system like Liria , where the same thing happens. In addition, due to level heights to the latter, it would reach a height of almost 100 m. above the population. On the other hand, the width of the pipeline, clearly larger, for example, than that of the Tarragona aqueduct, one of the cities with the largest population in Roman Spain, can indicate a use for irrigation and its destination would be the plain between Casinos and Liria. Component parts: 1. The catchment of water (weir of Tuéjar). At its beginning, in the term of Tuéjar, a simple dike, saeptum , perpendicular to the current, allows a direct diversion towards the channel, specus , where its initial section is carved in rock. 2. The bridge of the Barranco del Convento (Chelva) with a single arch. 3. The bridge of the Rambla de Alcotas (Calles). Escolano in 1611 and Marés in 1681 were able to verify that this bridge had six arches. However, Cavanilles a century later, in 1795, already confirms the existence of the only arch supported by two piers that today remains standing, as well as a third pier with the start of a second arch. 4. The bridge of the ravine of the Cueva del Gato (Calles) with three arches that constitutes the most spectacular and best preserved factory of the entire aqueduct. Its total length is 36 m., While its maximum grazing height exceeds 18 meters. Once this bridge is passed, the specus turns sharply eastward to continue through an impressive cliff called Peña Cortada or La Serrada, since the mountain suffered an almost vertical cut of about 25 meters in height and a length of about 50 meters. The extracted rock must have been used in the construction of this aqueduct bridge. 5. Puente de la Torre de Castro (Streets). From this point, the conduction alternates 5 sections in the open air with another 4 in the gallery, bordering the eastern and northern sides of the Torre de Castro, while on the western side the remains of an aqueduct bridge are located, built to save the More de Solaz ravine. 6. Bridge of the ravine of La Cabra (Streets) with a single arch. 7. Bridge of the El Zurdo ravine (Calles) from which one of the piers can barely be distinguished. 8. Bridge of the Tío Roque ravine (Calles) with a single arch in which the start of the piers can barely be distinguished. 9. Bridges of the Arenal and Olivera del Arquillo (Streets) ravines with a single arch, also heavily destroyed. 10. Pipelines in the municipality of Domeño, covered and uncovered.

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