In the heart of Sant’Egidio del Monte Albino, among the houses and streets of the historic center, a small section of the ancient Roman aqueduct that once fed an ancient Roman domus survives. It is an underground work, hidden below the level of the modern city, but capable of telling a story almost two thousand years long.
The underground route of the ancient Roman aqueduct connects Mandrino Street to the nearby Fountain of St. Nicholas or Fonte Helvius, near theAbbey of St. Mary Magdalene in Armillis. The main entrance is located behind the abbey and leads into an underground walkway that still preserves the original simple but ingenious structure, consisting of a main branch and three minor branches.
The presence of the aqueduct is closely linked to the earliest phases of the Roman settlement of this area, once part of ancient Nuceria. In the vicinity of the hypogean route are the remains of a rustic villa dating from the 1st century B.C. to the 1st century A.D., later incorporated into the crypt of the abbey. This context allows us to understand how the water system represented an essential element in the life of the rural community that animated these slopes of Montalbino.
The final destination of the aqueduct was the Fountain of St. Nicholas, also known as “Fonte Helvius,” carved from a marble block decorated with figures of the god Sarno. The making of the fountain is attributed to Publius Helvius, praetor of Nuceria, and its presence also allows us to indirectly date the system of tunnels that fed the basin. This link between aqueduct and fountain restores a picture of continuity between Roman water infrastructure and the later urban fabric, still visible in the Giovanni Battista Ferrajoli square. Fonte Helvius is evidence of the ancient and inseparable connection of the Sarno plain. On the three sides of the fountain, the river is represented in the form of a deity: on the left a child symbolizes the sources of the river, on the central panel a man in full strength represents the course in its central part, and on the right panel the figure of an old man tells us of the weary river that is ready to flow into the sea at the end of its journey. This unique documentation is unparalleled in the entire area and identifies Fonte Helvius as an extremely valuable Roman artifact.
