Nymphaeum of Butrint
About
Where the Augustan aqueduct's arcade reached the city after crossing the Vivari Channel, engineers built this nymphaeum as both a monumental public fountain and a distribution tank feeding Butrint's water network. It marked the point where spring water piped four kilometers from the hills near Xarre finally reached the colony's streets. The structure had been supplying the city's fountains and baths for roughly a century and a half by the time Hadrian took the throne in 117 CE.
What happened here
This is where most of the town gets its water, and it runs continuously because the aqueduct cannot be switched off. A basin catches the flow, jars are filled from spouts, and the overflow goes into a channel that flushes the street. Queues form early and the fountain is where the neighbourhood's news circulates. The stonework wears into grooves where thousands of hands and rope have rested on the rim. Animals drink at a lower trough. Bigger show-fountains at street corners and road junctions are put up by magistrates and carry their names; the water is the gift and the inscription is the receipt. Blocking, fouling or tapping a public fountain is an offence people are actually prosecuted for.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →