Les Ferreres Aqueduct
Acueducto de les Ferreres
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- According to legend, the devil built the bridge in exchange for the soul of the first to drink its water, and a donkey was made to drink first.
- The stones of the arches were laid in opus quadratum, large squared blocks fitted together without any mortar.
- The bridge stretches more than 200 metres across the valley, its arches each about 6 metres wide and set 8 metres apart.
- A repair in the 10th century is attributed to the Córdoban caliph Abd al-Rahman III, and further restorations followed in the 18th and 19th centuries.
- The aqueduct was declared a national historic-artistic monument in 1905, long before its World Heritage listing.
- The stone blocks were cut from quarries close to the site, so the bridge is built from the hills around it.
Why it is worth it
The Ferreres Aqueduct, better known locally as the Pont del Diable, the Devil's Bridge, is the most spectacular surviving piece of the water supply that fed Roman Tarraco, the capital of the province of Hispania Tarraconensis and today's Tarragona. It carried water taken from the Francolí river about 15 km north of the city, and it probably dates from the reign of Augustus. Along with the rest of Tarraco's Roman remains, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco, inscribed in 2000.
The bridge crosses a natural valley in two tiers of arches: 11 below and about 25 above, reaching a maximum height of 27 metres. The builders worked to a strict module: the arches share a span of 20 Roman feet, about 6 metres, with remarkably little variation, and the pillars stand 26 Roman feet apart. The structure is built of large squared stone blocks, and the channel on top, the specus, was lined with waterproof Roman mortar so the water would not leak on its way to the reservoirs that distributed it around Tarraco.
What makes the visit memorable is how close you can get. Access is free and unrestricted, and you can stand beneath the double arcade to take in its height, then look along the top, where the line of the water channel can be followed along the upper tier. The monument sits within an ecohistoric park set up around the aqueduct, with visitor information about the city's Roman water supply, which also drew on a second aqueduct from the Gaià river.
The popular name, the Devil's Bridge, belongs to the folklore that has gathered around the monument, and it is how most people in Tarragona know it. The aqueduct makes a natural short excursion from the city, whose other Roman sites belong to the same World Heritage listing.
Getting there
The aqueduct is about 4 km north of central Tarragona, off the N-240 road. Reus Airport (REU) is about 6 km away; Barcelona El Prat is the larger airport, about 90 km northeast of Tarragona. City bus line 5 runs from Tarragona towards the aqueduct. Tarragona station has regional trains from Barcelona every 30 minutes, taking about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Tarragona Amphitheatre 3.7 km · amphitheatre
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Ferreres Aqueduct, also known as the Pont del Diable, is an ancient bridge, part of one of the Roman aqueducts that supplied water to the ancient city of Tarraco, today Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. The bridge is located 4 km north of the city and is part of the Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco.
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