Aquedotto Mediceo, Renaissance aqueduct in Pitigliano, Italy.
The Aquedotto Mediceo is a hydraulic structure in Pitigliano, built entirely of tufa. Its visible part consists of two wide round arches separated by a very tall pillar that descends into the valley, followed by thirteen smaller arches whose supports rise from a tufa wall, likely part of the medieval town walls. A molding separates the pillar bases from the wall below.
Construction started in the 16th century under the direction of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and reached completion in 1639 when the Medici family took control of Pitigliano. The extended building process reflects the technical challenges of creating such an ambitious system across difficult terrain.
The aqueduct is still known by the name of the Medici, the family that completed it in 1639 after the Orsini had begun the works. Its arches are built into a tufa wall that was almost certainly part of the medieval town walls, so the structure reads as an addition to the older defences.
The aqueduct runs along the southeastern edge of Pitigliano's historic center, where the two large arches and the tall pillar between them drop toward the Lente valley. The visible stretch is best seen from the town side, above the tufa wall that once formed part of the medieval defenses.
The two widest arches are separated by a very tall pier that drops into the valley below the south-eastern edge of the village, and above it sits a small round-arched niche. The thirteen arches that follow are markedly lower and narrower, their piers rising from a tufa wall that was almost certainly part of the medieval town walls.
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