The square of the Caños del Peral
Various systems for collecting, storing and redistributing water to Madrid
The square of the Caños del Peral
The area, which at the end of the Middle Ages corresponded to a suburb in which smelly industries abounded, was transformed with the arrival of the Royal Court in the mid-sixteenth century, raising challenges of clean and dirty water management. The system underwent successive remodeling until it was partially destroyed in the early XNUMXth century by the elevation of the square. Currently the remains have been musealized, being integrated into the Ópera Metro station.
The archaeological site of Los Caños del Peral is made up of diverse systems of capture, storage and redistribution of water to Madrid. The different phases of this process have been documented through the Agua de Amaniel trip, as a catchment element, the Fuente de los Caños del Peral, an example of redistribution, and the Main Sewer and Culvert of the street of Los Caños del Peral as outstanding models of the wastewater evacuation system. All these elements are located under the Plaza de Isabel II or Opera Square, located in the Palace district, being possible to visit them in the offices of the Opera Metro station.
The fountain, dated in the XVI, counted with the participation of Juan Bautista de Toledo. It consisted of a main body of more than 30 meters, composed of granite ashlar blocks, organized in three sections, with six pipes in different niches with scallops and their corresponding piles. Attached to the back there was a pylon where water was collected from several springs. Behind the front of the fountain was a vaulted brick gallery that provided water to the fountains and allowed for maintenance. Its location in the lower part of the ravine made it necessary to build walls that delimited a rectangular square of paved soil.
The aqueduct of the water trip of Amaniel conserves 31 meters of channel, of which 20 meters are supported by arcs. There are six arches made of solid brick with blocks of large blocks without squares of flint and granite. Its irregular shape responded to the adaptation of the aqueduct to the morphology of the land.
A stretch of 15 meters in length could be documented from the Arenal sewer, of which only a small section of the vault that covered it at its southern end is conserved. On its way to the west it passed under the third arc of the Aqueduct of Amaniel. This gallery had a vaulted brick roof on two separate walls, which in turn rested on a base, for whose construction large limestone ashlars were used.
During most of the Middle Ages this area was not very busy, with the suburbs proliferating. Historically, the presence of streams and springs in this area led to the proliferation of vegetable gardens and "industries," such as tanneries, potteries, butchers, fishmongers, which were unhealthy and unhealthy.
The existing springs in the plaza were channeled in the 16th century to create a source from which remnants of nearby washings would be supplied.
With the arrival of the royal court in the middle of the 16th century, the surroundings of the Alcazar were reformed, transforming the square, the blocks of houses and the tanneries disappearing. In addition, the Council of Madrid ordered to build public washrooms that would be supplied with the excess water from the source of the Caños del Peral, at the same time that retaining walls were built to avoid mud floods and the plaza was paved several times .
The evacuation of the dirty waters was a constant problem that, together with the growth of the spaces associated with the Palace, involved the channeling of the Arenal stream. In the seventeenth century the embocadero was advanced to the vicinity of the Fuente de los Caños del Peral. In the following centuries its route was extended following the old course of the stream to Calle de Alcalá.
The water supply was also complex. In addition to supplying the sources of the area, he had to supply the Palace, which on many occasions used the water from the washhouses to irrigate the royal gardens and supply their fountains.
At the beginning of the XVII century, a project of bringing water from the Dehesa de Amaniel, today Dehesa de la Villa, was presented. When arriving at the square of the Caños del Peral, it was necessary to save the strong unevenness of the land with the construction of a system of arches to maintain the level of the pipe, initially of ceramic and later of lead. Despite the fact that Amaniel's trip was close to the Fuente de los Caños del Peral, it did not serve him.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the Colosseum of Los Caños del Peral was built on the old laundries, which meant the definitive burial of the aqueduct. In this way the source was marginalized with respect to the recent building. Subsequent works modified the layout of the water collection through Arenal. The construction of the Real Theater supposed the leveling of the square and the definite underground of the source. At the beginning of the 19th century the level of the square was raised, which led to the conservation of the remains found during the remodeling works of the Opera Metro Station.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the start-up of the supply system of the Canal de Isabel II involved the construction of new galleries and the conditioning and restoration of the old branches. One of them was the street of the Caños del Peral, which connected with the Main Sewer at the height of the Plaza de Isabel II, which must have been in use until the beginning of the 20th century when the "metropolitan" station was built. . Great amount of sewers and connections, as well as the buried remains of the source of the Caños del Peral, were partially destroyed in these works.
Image gallery
The square of the Caños del Peral
Tomás López
Sewer
The basin of the Arenal stream in the 16th century
Urgorri Married
Fountain of the Caños del Peral
Location elements
Interior of the museum stands and aqueduct in the background
Alcantarilla del Arenal
CYII water distribution
Isidro González Velázquez
Archaeological performance
The archaeological follow-up works associated with the installation project of new elevators in the Metro de Opera station in Madrid, in 2008, brought to light the remains of the old urban framework of the former Plazuela de los Caños del Peral, now Plaza de Isabel II.
The remains have been put in value with the creation of a musealized space in the Opera station, being able to visit the remains of the Plazuela and Fuente de los Caños del Peral, the Alcantarilla del Arenal that channeled the waters of the eponymous stream, and the Acueducto del Water Trip of Amaniel.
Archives
The square of the Caños del Peral (20.67 MB)