Postigo del Consuelo — The Devil Built It, According to Legend
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
From the Postigo, the aqueduct becomes both infrastructure and folklore.
There is a famous local legend, and it is a legend rather than historical evidence. According to the story, a young water carrier, exhausted by hauling water uphill, made a bargain with the Devil: if he could bring water to her door before the cock crowed, he could claim her soul. He almost completed the aqueduct but left one stone unfinished when dawn arrived.
Segovia’s tourism authority still tells the story and even celebrates it with a modern devil sculpture nearby.
The legend survives because it explains an engineering achievement through human-scale drama. The documented reality is less supernatural but more impressive: surveyors maintained a workable gradient over kilometres, masons erected dry-jointed granite arches and the urban channel continued toward the Alcázar.
This is a useful NarRoam rule in stone: enjoy the legend, but do not let it replace the engineering.