The Aqueduct Bridge is an important arched structure, 37 m high, 90 m long and 5.5 m wide, connecting the two banks of the Gravina stream. It was built to allow the crossing of the Crapo (the ancient name of the Gravina stream), and to allow the pilgrims to reach the small church of the Madonna della Stella. Little is known about the date of its construction. Historical sources date its existence with certainty to at least 1686. Probably the bridge, made unstable by the 1686 earthquake, collapsed in the 1722 earthquake. It was then the Orsini family of Rome, who had moved to the fief of Gravina, who ordered the reconstruction and transformation of the bridge into an aqueduct around the middle of the 18th century, to bring the waters of the Sant’Angelo and San Giacomo springs under the city walls. The structure on which rested the water pipes connecting the two fountains (pilacci), which still exist today on either side of the bridge, consisted of 25 arches arranged along the espalier. Following the flood of August 1855, these arches were seriously damaged and, since they were unsafe, they were replaced by a tufa backing. Consolidation and restoration work was carried out in 1860 with the installation of iron rods and a rustic protective paving. |
