The most incredible thing I have seen in Spain so far is definitely the Segovian aqueduct. I walk by it at least 8 times a day and I stop and stare every single time. It was built by the Romans to provide running water to the houses in the city. The pipes for the aqueduct originate in a spring in the mountains and run about 8 miles to La Plaza de Artillería in the middle of the city. The aqueduct provided water to the city of Segovia until the 1960's when the European Union decided to block the water supply in order to better preserve this impressive piece of history.
Not only aesthetically magnificent, this structure is also a scientific wonder. It has stood for over 2,000 years through wars, battles, earthquakes, storms, etc. As if that is not impressive enough, the Romans used absolutely no cement when building it. It was made completely and solely out of enormous granite stones. Many famous architects and physicists have studied the aqueduct in order to figure out why it is still standing, but no one knows. A few of the stones were knocked out or damaged during a battle against the Muslims. These stones were later replaced using cement under the rule of Queen Isabel to keep the integrity of the structure as a whole.
As with everything historic, there are legends about how and why the aqueduct was built. My professor told us her favorite legend, which was told to her by her grandmother. It goes something like this: A long, long time ago there was a very wealthy family who had a beautiful maid to wash their clothes. The maid was content working for the family, even though every day she had to walk miles and miles every day to get water for the clothes. The maid had a wonderful boyfriend and she was so excited because he was going to propose to her on the night of the festival of San Juan. After he proposed, he would pick her up and jump over the fire, cleansing their relationship for the start of their lives together. The maid bought the most beautiful dress she could find and eagerly waited for the festival of San Juan to arrive. But then, the day before the festival of San Juan, the mother told the maid that she could not go out because they needed her to go fetch water to clean their clothes for the festival. The maid was distraught. She wanted nothing more to go to the festival so she called the devil. When he arrived, they made a deal that he would build a great aqueduct to get the water to her house before the first ray of sun in the morning in exchange for the maid's soul. She was young and naive so she agreed and signed the contract in blood. The devil called in his demons and they spent the entire night cutting stone with their horns and building the grand aqueduct. The maid watched them work and became worried. She didn't want to give her soul away to the devil. She spoke with her priest but nothing can break a contract with the devil. As the night went on, she became more and more anxious. As the first ray of sunlight appeared, the devil still had one stone left. He had not finished in time and the contract was broken. The maid's soul was saved and she was proposed to that night at the festival of San Juan. But she learned her lesson, never make deals with the devil.
I asked my host mom if she knew any legends about the construction of the aqueduct. She said they were silly, but some people say the devil ran on top of the aqueduct and that is how the path for the water was created.
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