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Event details

name	Valens aqueduct bridge – Reduced supply
event type	Reduced supply
start date	1140
end date	1453
date comments	Since no specific year is given for Manuel's decision, the start of his reign is taken as start date. No renovations were made until the conquest of the Ottomans in 1453.
installations	Valens aqueduct bridge
persons	Andronikos I Komnenos - Restorer (1183-1185), Manuel I Komnenos - Restorer (1143-1180)
description	Eventually, Manuel I (r. 1118-1180) decided that further restorations of the long-distance Valens Waterway were futile. After a drought in 1167, Manuel noted how the arcades (stoai) which supported the water transport 'had collapsed' (Crow et al. 2008, p. 21). Therefore, he focused on clearing out the surviving aqueudct channels and to channel them into a new underground cistern 'near Petra' (unknown location). This can partially be explained by the Komnenoi’s choice to move to the Blachernai Palace in the 10th century. Blachernai was supplied by the Hadrian Waterway system. The shifting importance of the Hadrian Waterway is also seen in the choice by the Ottomans to refurbish it as part of their Kırkçeşme renovation. Choniates (early 13th century) mentions a minor restoration of an underground water pipe sourced from the Hydralis river. He also mentions how the inhabitants of Blachernai benefitted from this. During the Latin period , the Valens Aqueduct bridge was still admired as a remarkable monument. The diplomat Clavijo reports in 1402 that water was running over the aqueduct bridge.
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Literature connected to this Event

#	Code	Page	Excerpt
1	Choniates 1207	182	(van Dieten 239) At great expense Andronikos rebuilt the ancient underground aqueduct which ran to the middle of the agora bringing up rainwater which was not stagnant and pestilential but sweeter than running water. He had the Hydrales River conducted through sluices into this water conduit, and near the streams that fed the river at its source, he erected a tower and building especially suited as a summer resort. Now all those whose dwellings happen to be in the vicinity of Blachernai and beyond are supplied with water from this source. He did not, however, restore the entire water conduit so that the water could be channeled into the centre of the agora, for the thread of his life had reached its end. Such was the concern of those who reigned after him, especially those who presently hold sway, to complete this work of common utility that Isaakios, who removed Andronikos from both throne and life, demolished the tower and razed these most delightful buildings in envy of Andronikos's magnificent work.
2	Clavijo 1403	87-88	There are within its compass many hills and valleys where corn fields and orchards are found, and among the orchard lands there are hamlets and suburbs which are all included within the city limits ... Within its area are many fountains and wells of sweet water. In that part of the town which lies adjacent below the Church of the Holy Apostles, there stretches from hill to hill, rising above the houses and orchards the Aqueduct (Bozdoǧan Kemeri), and this carries water that is used to irrigate all those orchards.
3	Janin 1964	200