laura lopez
Segovia (EFE).- A team of restorers carries out a comprehensive cleaning of the Segovia Aqueduct in its urban section, just under two kilometers, to remove the vegetation that has grown between its ashlars for the last thirty years, a complex and expensive task which will be accompanied by a detailed documentation of the state of its stones.
The main person in charge of these tasks, the restorer Carlos Sanz, has explained in an interview with EFE the details of these works, which are expected to last about three months and for which the Department of Historical Heritage of the Segovia City Council has awarded almost 40,000 euro.
Since this past Monday, two technicians have gone through all the nooks and crannies of this almost 2,000-year-old Roman stone giant, dated between 112 and 116 AD. C and declared in 1985 a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
In each corner formed between its granite ashlars, the specialists apply a systemic herbicide, which they will leave to act for between one and two weeks -depending on the weather- until the product has killed each plant from the roots and they can proceed to remove them.
This is a complex and expensive process because, to access the highest areas of the Aqueduct, the technicians will have to use auxiliary means such as an articulated platform that allows them to work at more than twenty meters in height, so they will take advantage of the effort to document the state of the stone of the monument.
The vegetation is not exactly an evil that causes a lot of damage to this stone, beyond some particular cases such as an allianto that Carlos Sanz remembers having removed from the monument many years ago and that could have created very strong roots, capable of displacing “any stuff”.
In general, they are plants that die after a year but, if their roots remain inside, it can generate a biologically active substrate that would harm the stone and it is also convenient to eliminate bushes that affect the Aqueduct “aesthetically” because they give ” feeling of abandonment.”
An “absolute blunder” in the nineties
Beyond the vegetation, Carlos Sanz observes these days that the stone of the Roman aqueduct has “a problem that has not been addressed at any time” and that is that, over time, its relief is being lost, as if it were being “shredding”.
The specialist has pointed out that the treatments that were carried out from 1992 and that were presented at the time as “consolidation” have turned out to be an “absolute blunder” and this is a matter that is still “to be resolved”. .
“At no time should you be alarmed as if the Aqueduct was about to fall, not that, but there are issues that must be addressed little by little,” the restorer commented.
The mayoress of Segovia, Clara Martín, is an archaeologist and manages the Historical Heritage area in the City Hall, as she did when she was a councilor before taking office as councilor in June last year.
In an interview with Efe, he explained that the optimal thing would be for these tasks of comprehensive cleaning of the vegetation to be carried out every five or ten years, but the truth is that they had not been carried out for three decades.
In parallel, this Monday three archaeological tastings began to be carried out on Daoiz street in the city -one of the sections that connects the Plaza Mayor with the Alcázar of Segovia- to find out where the underground channel of the Aqueduct runs facing the urbanization works on this road that the City Council plans to undertake.
Martín has explained that a study with georadar that was carried out in the summer of 2020 identified a series of sensitive points where there could be underlying archaeological elements and, with this action, these data will be counteracted to find out if there are other elements of interest to protect during the works.
The three administrations will share care
Since the beginning of last year, the City Council has led an initiative to create a collaboration agreement with the regional Executive and the central government to jointly manage the actions to be carried out to protect the Aqueduct, a mission that until now has fallen to exclusively in the city.
Martín has pointed out that at the end of last year his team presented a finalist proposal to the central government and the Junta de Castilla y León, and the former has already consigned a nominative grant in the General State Budget for 2023 with 100,000 euros for the monument.
This same Tuesday, the mayoress confirmed with the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts of the Government that this part will give the “go-ahead” to the proposal, and maintains contact with the Cultural Heritage of the Board to “close the date of signing this agreement in the coming weeks.
“For the first time we are going to have a framework for conversation between the three administrations that have direct powers in matters of Cultural Heritage, through which joint decisions are made to protect and restore the Segovia Aqueduct,” explained the councilor.
The property will continue to be municipal property, but this tool will make it possible to carry out a “fully coordinated programming of interventions” with the other two administrations and to set a “calendar” of actions in terms of conservation, rehabilitation and restoration of the monument. EFE