L'Aqueduc gallo-romain

An aqueduct in the plural... In Saintes, the water supply to the thermal baths and public fountains was ensured by an aqueduct, or more precisely several successive aqueducts. In Roman times, thermal baths played a key role in social life, and many towns had them, such as Saintes, the ancient Mediolanum Santomun, where three complexes are known, including the Thermes Saint-Saloine. - The oldest aqueduct, built at the very end of the 1st century BC, brought water to the town from Font-Morillon, located in what is now the commune of Fontcouverte. Its design is surprisingly audacious, and the expression "a Roman job" has its full meaning here. From the source, the water was channelled mainly through an underground conduit as far as the Vallon des Arcs (now the Golf road), and from this point onwards, major engineering structures were built. Here are a few figures to illustrate the scale of the project: The Pont des Arcs, 160 metres long with 27 arches, the highest of which is 16 metres high. Don't miss: several of the bridge's piers have been restored and incorporated into the Rouyer-Guillet golf course at Fontcouverte. Free access on the GR trail. The Plantis underground gallery, known as the "Neuf Puits" (Nine Wells), has a 500-metre long semicircular vaulted ceiling, with the canal running to more than 17 metres below ground level. The Haumont Bridge, with its 62 arches spanning a 400-metre-long valley and rising to a height of 29 metres. Despite the ingenuity of its construction, the canal's flow remained modest at 3,000 m3 of water per day. - Around the middle of the 1st century, a new aqueduct was built to bring the abundant water from the Vénérand and Douhet springs, 15 km away, to Saintes. The water flowed at a rate of 12,000 m3 per day. Two new pipes were built from each source, and at their junction (Vallon de la Tonne) the aqueduct then reached Fontcouverte via an underground canal. From then on, the new aqueduct ran alongside the original, disused canal, except where it passed over old engineering structures, which were reused at the cost of raising the canal walls. Don't miss: the Douhet springs known as Grand Font and Vénérand. Please note that these two sites are currently undergoing development work and will not be accessible to the public until July 2021. The route of the aqueduct is known as far as the entrance to the town, at La Grève and La Grille, at the top of a hill overlooking the Charente valley from the right bank. However, we still don't know how the river was crossed and how the aqueduct reached the final water distribution reservoir at the top of the town, on the left bank. In recent years, research into the aqueduct has resumed under the impetus of the Société d'archéologie et d'histoire de la Charente-Maritime (Charente-Maritime Archaeology and History Society), enabling us to gain a deeper understanding. In 2010, a third aqueduct dating from the 4th century was unearthed.