Aqueduc Saint-Clément, 18th-century aqueduct in Montpellier, France.
The Aqueduc Saint-Clément is a masonry water conduit built between 1753 and 1765 to the design of engineer Henri Pitot, running from the Grande Source of Saint-Clément-de-Rivière to the château d'eau on the Promenade du Peyrou in Montpellier. Its aqueduct bridges copy the Pont du Gard: large lower arches carry three smaller arches each, as at the Arceaux section, where 53 large arches of 8 m span support 183 small arches of 2.78 m. The channel is about 1.35 m wide at the top of the arches.
Montpellier's city council decided in 1751 to build an aqueduct from Saint-Clément-de-Rivière to the Promenade du Peyrou. The first stone was laid on 13 June 1753 and the inauguration took place on 7 December 1765; the engineer was Henri Pitot. In 1859 the aqueduct was extended north to the Lez spring, and in 1931 an underground pipe doubled the flow to 250 litres per second.
The aqueduct's final stretch gave its name to Montpellier's Les Arceaux district, after the shape of its arches. Its water fed the Fontaine des Trois Grâces on the Place de la Comédie, the Fontaine de Cybèle on the Place Chabaneau and the Fontaine des Licornes on the Place de la Canourgue, via the Peyrou water tower.
The most visible stretch runs through Montpellier's Arceaux district, where the aqueduct bridge is 820 to 880 m long and reaches about 22 to 28 m at its highest point. Its top is only 1.35 m wide. The arches gave the neighbourhood its name; the line ends at the Peyrou water tower, the city's highest point.
The aqueduct's arches gave their name to Montpellier's Les Arceaux district. In the Arceaux section, 183 small arches of 2.78 m span sit atop 53 large arches of 8 m, roughly three small arches per large one, except near the reservoir where 24 rest on a continuous wall.
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