Object description

The Tunnels of Claudius are a hydraulic work made up of a long underground canal, six inclined service tunnels and thirty-two wells, which Emperor Claudius had built between 41 and 52 AD to control the variable levels of the Fucine Lake in Abruzzo, thus protecting riparian villages from floods and reclaiming the Fucine lands making them cultivable. Thanks to them, the lake waters flowed out through the belly of Mount Salviano from the Avezzano side along the almost 6-kilometre-long tunnel until they flowed into the Liri River on the opposite side of the mountain, under the old town of Capistrello. The underground canal represents the longest tunnel ever built since ancient times until the inauguration of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel occurring in 1871.