Water circulation systems and power in medieval Lisbon (XIV-XVI centuries)

Abstract

In the late Middle Ages, urban authorities worried more and more into the role of water spaces in the urban supply, as well as with the disease phenomena connected with water waste. This work aims precisely to analyse how this process took place in medieval Lisbon, noting its articulation with local powers and the increasing involvement of the Crown in urban decisions. From the various components of urban water systems (catchment, conduction and distribution) we observed the relation between the distribution of the main sources in the city and the development of alternative water catchment techniques; we have identified how these
strategies have changed in the ways of water conducting; we have examined how this was articulated with the development of the symbolic power of the Crown from the example of the Chafariz d’el-Rei; we analysed how this process accompanied the local concerns with health and cleaning in the sixteenth century city.