Roman aqueduct

This Roman aqueduct has a record compared to the others: after more than 2,000 years it is perhaps the only one still perfectly functioning and continues to bring water from the Setta River to the homes for about one-fifth of their needs. Judging in fact that the waters of the Aposa (the only river flowing through the center of Bologna) were insufficient and those of the Reno too chalky, Roman hydraulic engineers decided that the Setta stream, with clean, fresh and clear water, was just right for them. They thus designed, around 15 B.C., a tunnel entirely dug into the sandstone and clay rock hills, the mouth of which lies along the right bank of the Setta, just before its confluence with the Reno.

Its rediscovery in the 18th century was due to Abbot Calindri, a great scholar of the Bolognese mountains. For its complete reactivation, by the Municipality of Bologna, we have to wait until 1883. Its structure extends from the Contrafforte Pliocenico in Sasso Marconi to Bologna: but the most extraordinary thing is that today, after more than 2,000 years, the aqueduct still serves perfectly to distribute water to the homes of the Bolognese for about one-fifth of the city's needs.