Font del Ferro

Iron Spring and Aqueduct

The location of the Iron spring can be found in a valley under Sant Pere de Riu, in the dominions of the old Can Marquès farmhouse (Tordera).

In this area there is a brook that flows into the main stream of Pineda. The valley was partially disfigured by the construction of the C-32 motorway, in the year 1994. The surroundings were ruined and it meant that the fairly popular ferruginous water spring (hence its name, Font del Ferro, “Iron Spring”) disappeared. Since 2007 several citizens have carried out interventions and the spring and its surroundings have been recovered, even though the water flow is different from the old one.

A few meters away, saving the watercourse, in Roman times an arch was built, which is included in the same water conduction as the Can Cua aqueduct stretch (Pineda de Mar). The arch has been consolidated in two complementary archaeological interventions throughout 2012.

According to the study by F.Prat i Puig, the aqueduct was a hydraulic work that took the water from the stream of Pineda just above Can Bofí. Along a route of some 3.5km more or less parallel to it, it would reach the site of the Can Roig farmhouse (Pineda de mar), where the remains of a Roman settlement have been documented which was probably owned by an important landowner, promoter of this remarkable infrastructure.

The canal of the aqueduct saves the watercourse of the Font del Ferro with a beautiful, single round arch measuring 3.13 meters in diameter and a height of 3.40 meters above the torrent bed. On top of it, there is the conduction with a waterproof pavement made of lime mortar and broken tiles (OPUS SIGNIUM) is typical of Roman techniques. The channel probably had a protective cover, now disappeared. To the south of the arcade, the archaeological excavations showed that the ditch turns towards the stream of Pineda.