Aqueduc Romain de Barbegal, Fontvieille
The remains of the Barbegal Roman aqueducts & watermills
The Alpilles mountains to the north east of Arles provided the Romans with a great source of water and to be able to channel it to the city they created a wide network of aqueducts.
Around 60 kilometres of aqueducts were built, feeding water down towards the city with the main northerly and southerly aqueducts converging on a place called Barbegal.
At this point a series of watermills were built for the production of flour. In the 1st & 2nd centuries AD this must have been a world leading piece of technology, with 16 mills in 8 pairs running down the hillside, churning water turning the wheels of a large number of mills used for flour production.
The mill complex was in use for around two hundred years and produced enough flour to supply the whole or Arles, or Arelate as it was known in Roman times.
Today there are lots of ruins of the aqueduct system to be seen as well as the partly overgrown site of the flour mills. It's a great place to wander around and try to imagine what it would have looked like when it was all still in use.
