Portions of the Aqueducto de Amaniel (or Amaniel Aqueduct) were found in 2009 and are preserved in place at a Museum inside the the Opera Metro Station. The photos featured in this Waymark are of the portions that can be seen for free through the Museum's plexiglass windows. A placard outside the museum explains that the aqueduct used the previous water systems left by the Arabs.
The Museum's website (
visit link) informs us (as translated by Google from Spanish to English):
"Metro de Madrid is home to some wealth, the traveler part of the history of Madrid, and the Museum of Peral in Opera or paleontological Carpetana station. The refurbishment of the two stations meant the discovery of important archaeological and paleontological findings, now converted into a museum and open to the public.
Museum Los Canos del Arenal PeralAcueducto of AmanielAlcantarilla
Opera station has inside the largest underground archaeological museum of Madrid, an area of ??200 square meters where you can see the archaeological remains of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries belonging to the source Peral, Aqueduct Amaniel Sewer and Arenal.
In the early sixteenth century, the water did not reach the houses of Madrid despite being an essential element in the development of the city and supplies carried by tanks or batteries installed in the street and next to doors and walls. In the modern age, the public fountains replaced the tanks, and some of these sources is what we find in Opera.
The source Peral had six pipes and their corresponding batteries. The water came from the spring waters of existing fat in the square of the Sewers.
The Aqueduct Amaniel dates back to the early seventeenth century, was born in present Dehesa de la Villa and Royal Palace surtía water.
The Arenal Raceway came to alleviate the problem of disposal of sewage, so it was channeled to lead to the brook Leganitos, at some point the current Cuesta de San Vicente.
Hydraulic elements that bring the story to all visitors also have the ability to access the media room for the history of the remains exposed.
Opera station (lines 2, 5 and Ramal). Plaza Isabel II 1
Visiting Hours
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 to 13:00 and 17:00 to 19:00
Free visit: Free admission with limited capacity"
The date for the Aqueduct's construction below as 1625 is an estimate. All sources simply indicate that it was built in the early 17th century.