The Claudio aqueduct: in the wake of a millenary restoration
The object of this contribution is a chronicle, with some reflection, on some conservation activities
sedimented over the centuries on the Aqueduct. Recently, to the ancient interventions have been
added several restorations carried out on some significant logs. By now the great infrastructure is
reduced to a series of residual stretches, that emerge in the panorama of the park of the Appian,
like skeletal portions of a prehistoric pachyderm;
this is the effect of degradation due to centuries of
abandonment but also to deliberate interventions of expropriation. On the occasion of these recent
structural restorations, an attempt was made to re-read the history of the building, to characterize its
component materials and to partially reconstruct the evolution of the degradation. Therefore, the most
immediate needs were identified and conservation measures defi ned. In this way the impression has
been created that we are, although briefly, part of this millennial process that we want to contribute
to extend over time.
