The Baix Vallès aqueduct in the Parc Central de Nou Barris

The Parc Central de Nou Barris is a vast landscaped area of 17 hectares and Barcelona's second biggest park. It stands on part of the site once occupied by the Santa Creu Psychiatric Hospital. Ornamental fountains, two lakes and small ponds with water jets form the perfect complement to its green spaces. The lake closest to Passeig de Fabra i Puig features an unexpected stone and exposed brick structure resembling a bridge with three huge eyes. It is actually a section of the former Baix Vallès aqueduct, which was built to provide Barcelona's new neighbourhood, the Eixample, with water.

The aqueduct was planned in 1869 and funded by the powerful Catalan bankers, the Girona brothers. It opened in 1881 and was 20 km long. It carried 7,000 m3 of water collected every day from the towns of Barberà and Palau Solità to the Dosrius reservoir, which is now part of the Parc de les Aigües in the Guinardó neighbourhood.

Following the typhus epidemic in Barcelona in 1914, the water supply provided by the Baix Vallès aqueduct was the first in the city and Spain to be chlorinated. The modern water supply network carrying large volumes of water that was guaranteed to be of drinking quality from the river Ter to Barcelona opened in 1967. It rendered the viaduct obsolete and it closed.

With its quality architecture, the Baix Vallès aqueduct is the most spectacular surviving example of a 19th-century structure of this kind as well as a wonderful landmark.

Temporarily without water due to drought