The Technology of Medieval Water Management at the Charterhouse of Bourgfontaine

Monasteries were major contributors to the preservation of ancient knowledge about, as well as innovation in, hydraulic technology during the western Middle Ages. The form of monasticism adopted by the Carthusians combined eremitic isolation with limited communal life, and thus required that water be provided to individual cells as well as to other locations in the monastery. The Carthusian house of Bourgfontaine (Aisne), founded in the fourteenth century in northern France, featured technologically sophisticated water management, the topography of its site requiring a siphon-powered system. An elaborate series of surviving water tunnels led to a large springhouse and aqueduct that in turn ran 500 meters to the charterhouse. Study of archival and pictorial sources, as well as comparison with other excavated and surviving Carthusian houses in Europe, permits us to understand the larger context of the contributions made by Bourgfontaine to hydraulic technology.