Snježana Perojević

Roman Underground Hydraulic Structures in Dalmatia, Croatia

In the area of present-day Dalmatia, the existence of eleven Roman aqueducts has been confirmed so far. Nine of them belonged to the urban areas: Navalia (Novalja) and Cissa (Caska) on the island of Pag, then Aenona (Nin), Asseria near Benkovac, Iader (Zadar), Scardona (Skradin) near Sibenik, Salona (Solin), Diocletian’s palace (Split) and Epidaurum (Cavtat) near Dubrovnik. Two of them belonged to the military camps: Burnum on Krka and Tiluruium on Cetina river. Following the Roman practice of high urban standards we can suppose that every permanent Roman settlement in this region was provided by water supply system. The route of all Dalmatian’s aqueducts mainly follows the terrain contour lines, the channel is mostly half-buried in the slope, and at some places is laid on a masonry support. Only two of the aqueducts have the underground section. That is aqueduct of Navalia and of Diocletian’s palace. Out of 4 km long Navalia aqueduct 1042 m of the channel went underground. The tunnel was cut in bedrock. The average width of the channel is about 60 cm, and its height varies from 120 to 220 cm. The tunnel has 9 vertical shafts 5 to 44 m high. They have a square cross section and only one is circular. On the 9.5 km long Diocletian’s Palace aqueduct route, 1.7 km was laid underground in three tunnels. The longest one is 1, 268 m long dug in marl and its profiles vary, which is related to natural marl layers that form the vault. The masonry channel 60/120 cm was laid in the tunnel and it is largely preserved with the original hydraulic plaster. There are 32 vertical square shafts 5 to 18 m high. Due to the fact that they are well preserved and no longer in operation, they are free to visit.

Roman sewer of Diocletian's palace in Split

Dioklecijanova palaca u Splitu, sagrađena pocetkom IV. stoljeca, najbolje je sacuvana kasnoanticka palaca u svijetu. Palaca kao i svi drugi urbanizirani prostori u Rimskom Carstvu imala je sustav vodoopskrbe i odvodnje i to kao carska građevina vjerojatno najbolji. U ovom clanku sabrana su sva dosadasnja znanja i svi nalazi sustava kanalizacije unutar cijele Palace i u njenoj neposrednoj blizini te su doneseni novi zakljucci o projektu i realizaciji tog znacajnog, detaljno planiranog i izvedenog antickog infrastrukturnog objekta.