A walking tour around Roman and Medieval Barcelona points out cityʼs relationship with water

The activity underlines the strong relationship that the city of Barcelona has always held with water. Riera explains that "the city of Barcelona has been worried about water supply since antiquity because the city is far from all important rivers in the area. The site where the Roman Barcino was located was limited by water supply; therefore, an aqueduct of more than ten kilometres long was built; later, the aqueduct gave place to the popular Rec Comtal".

The need of water supply has left us many archaeological structures linked to the use of water. The walk includes the visit of the hydraulic structures of Barcino, Barchinona and Barcelona. Participants will observe the systems of water piping and distribution from Roman Times. The tour begins at the remains of the ancient Roman aqueduct. Then, water distribution points in the city, water uses in thermal baths, some fountains and, finally, the archaeological remains of the Comtal Rec and the Riera del Merdançar, at Born Centre Cultural, will be visited.

Santiago Riera Mora got his PhD from UB in 1995. Currently, he teaches Landscape Archaeology and Bioarchaeology at the University of Barcelona. Before that, he studied and worked in Louvain-la-Neuve, Roma, Madrid and Lisbon.

The activity is part of the project La ciència de lʼaigua, of La UB Divulga, co-organised by the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+I) of UB and Roca. The main objective of the project is to make a transversal and multidisciplinary analysis of water by means of a series of lectures pronounced by UB experts on diverse subject areas: physical geography, ecology, microbiology, history, economics, law, chemical engineering and geochemistry.

Entrance is free but registration is required.