Pont d’Aël

A brilliant stone masterpiece in the heart of peaceful mountains. The Pont d'Aël is a grandiose work of hydraulic engineering from the Roman era: a 56-metre-high and 50-metre-long aqueduct-bridge over the Grand Eyvia torrent, in the village of Pont d'Aël, which is easily accessible from the road connecting Aymavilles to Cogne.

 

Exciting and evocative is the loop tour that allows visitors to discover the upper conduit, the ancient aqueduct paved with large lithic slabs and once waterproofed with mortar for the passage of water, and the lower walkway that was used for centuries as a passageway for men and livestock. It was built in the year 3 B.C. on the initiative of Caius Avilius Caimus, a member of a gens of wealthy entrepreneurs who worked at the extraction of marble in the nearby quarries, an industrial activity and an important economic reality of the young colony of Augusta Praetoria. Important restoration works financed by the European Community have made this place of great historical importance accessible and visitable.