Parco degli Acquedotti is located just outside of Rome, Italy, on a vast expanse of gorgeous Roman countryside—the legendary “Campagna Romana” that painters have depicted for centuries. The park got its name from the seven aqueducts that provided water to the city.
Further, a portion of Aqua Claudia and the remnants of Villa delle Vignacce to the northwest are traversed on one side by Aqua Felix. There is also a brief section of the old Roman Via Latina. Despite protecting the remnants of two massive historic aqueducts, the park receives relatively few visits from city visitors.
In 1988, this suburban park received a protected area designation following two years of advocacy by a local community organization. It gets its name from the magnificent aqueducts that provide one of Rome’s most well-known vistas and are still in place today. These ancient aqueducts brought drinking water from the east Lazio mountains (such as the Alban Hills and Monti Simbruini), and when they reached the level Roman farmland, they were raised on colossal arcades.
During the reigns of emperors Claudius and Caligula, the ancient Romans built the eighth aqueduct, Aqua Claudia, which is the most impressive aqueduct still standing within the park. It could transport water more than 40 miles from its original source at a rate of more than 2,000 liters per second. Close by lie the remains of an even older aqueduct, the Aqua Marcia, which was constructed in 144 BC during the late Republican era and conveyed the waters of Aqua Tepula and Aqua Iulia.
Since Pope Sixtus V demolished portions of it to construct the first Papal aqueduct, the Aqua Felix, toward the close of the sixteenth century CE, this one is not as well maintained. The Papal Aqueduct, which crosses the Aqua Claudia in the neighboring Tor Fiscale Park, is located much lower than its original Roman equivalent. The iconic Moses fountain in Piazza San Bernardo is where it stops at the end.
The park is a vast archaeological and natural site that preserves a number of sites, including the ruins of the imperial Vignacce Villa (its private baths are still visible). A well-preserved length of Roman road known as Via Latina; a marrana (ditch) created by popes to give water to the gardens of St. John the Lateran; and Casale di Torrevecchia, a fortified farmstead originally owned by the powerful Torlonia family.
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