Fontenay aqueduct

Fontenay aqueduct

Aqueduc de Fontenay
Remains of the aqueduct at Véretz.
Location	France, Centre-Val de Loire
Type	Aqueduct

The Fontenay aqueduct, also known as Aqueduc du Cher, is a largely underground aqueduct that helped supply water to the ancient city of Caesarodunum (now Tours), alongside springs, wells, and another intramural aqueduct. It owes its most common name to a locality near Bléré, where its starting point was located, some 25 kilometers east-southeast of Tours, close to a main spring; the water table from which it springs is still exploited in the 21st century. The aqueduct was also fed by several smaller springs along the way.

The aqueduct's route followed the Cher valley along its left bank, totally or partially embedded in the limestone hillside, except a few engineering structures required to cross valleys, almost in a straight line between Bléré and Saint-Avertin, a commune bordering Tours from which it is separated by the Cher. Although a large part of its route is attested, it has not been possible to identify its course beyond Saint-Avertin, in an area that has been profoundly altered by urbanization, which still casts doubt on its final destination and even on the premature interruption of its construction.

It was built during the High Empire, probably in the 1st century AD, at the same time as the main public monuments of Caesarodunum, although no more precise date can be proposed. It underwent regular maintenance and repairs until it was abandoned at a time that it is not possible, in 2015, to define, but which seems to predate the High Middle Ages. Only a few easily accessible remains remain, such as at the entrance to the Véretz municipal campsite (a section of canal exposed after having been moved) or along a roadside (piers and pipe). In many cases, the aqueduct is only revealed by anomalies in the terrain (elongated slope), which are not very suggestive. The fragility of the hillside supporting the aqueduct has led to the destruction of a significant proportion of the masonry by landslides. A section of the vaulted canal, cleared of the backfill that covered it, is located on a private estate in the commune of Athée-sur-Cher and is protected as a listed historic monument.