Traipsing through the Ancient Roman cisterns – in Todi

On my last visit to the lovely Umbrian hilltop town of Todi, I made an interesting visit to the Ancient Roman cisterns.

You can arrange for a guided visit at the tourist office on the main town square, and the entrance to the cisterns is from the backside of that main square, Piazza del popolo.

Everything hydrological in the Ancient Roman era is fascinating, and I never miss out on aqueducts, wells or cisterns. It’s truly amazing to see the engineering the Romans undertook – and especially when it came to securing water supplies for their towns and cities.

The construction of wells and cisterns in the Todi of Ancient Rome – known as Tuder, at the time – was undertaken between II-I centuries BC. The Ancient Roman Forum was located directly above them – today the main square, the Piazza el popolo.

The series of cisterns were developed in two separate “twin” structures, with a rectangular plan, measuirng 50 meteres by 8 meters, and divided into twelve connecting chambers.

Interestingly, one of these galleries (the one visitors see today) was forgotten by medieval times, while the other continued to serve for many centuries as the town’s primary source of freshwater. That “forgotten” cistern was only discovered by accident in 1996, when restoration work was taking place on commercial properties on the town square.

It’s well worth a visit to these ancient cisterns to admire the ingenuity of ancient engineering on your next visit to Todi.