Sasso Mobile

This Roman aqueduct is a record-holder: more than 2000 years old, it is the only one still perfectly functioning and to this day it brings water from the Setta River into about one fifth of Bolognese homes. Since the waters of the Aposa River, the only one running through the center of Bologna, were deemed insufficient, and those of the Reno too hard, Roman hydraulic engineers decided to bring in the clear, fresh, sweet waters of the Setta. Around the year 15 B.C. they planned a tunnel dug into the sandstone and clay hills along the right bank of the river, just before it runs into the Reno. Almost 19 km long, it took 20 teams to build it, each made up of dozens of men, working in shifts, over what was probably a period of 12 years. The aqueduct was built in sections. Each section was dug by two teams going down the same hole, then digging in opposite directions for about 80 m until they met the team who had started further up or further down the line. It remained in use until the 4th century A.D., when the Barbaric invasions led to the fall of the Roman Empire in the west.