The entry into Lisbon of the Águas Livres Aqueduct, set by the arch on Rua das Amoreiras, which was built by Hungarian architect Carlos Mardel from 1746 to 1748, ends at the Mãe d’Água das Amoreiras Reservoir.

The cistern had three design plans. The initial project included three more arches, which would bring it to the northern side of the Largo do Rato square. In the final design project, the reservoir was simplified and the number of vats and outer decoration elements was decreased.

When Carlos Mardel died in 1763, the Aqueduct’s final reservoir which had been started in 1746, was still pending completion. The works were resumed in 1771 by Reinaldo Manuel dos Santos, who introduced some changes to the initial plan.

The main changes to the project were seen in the building’s cover, the cascade and the replacement of the four Tuscan columns that had been designed by Mardel, with four robust rectangular pillars.

Although the work on the reservoir was resumed several times, even after Reinaldo dos Santos’s death in 1791, the final work done to the cover and a few other details was only completed in 1834 during Queen D. Maria II’s reign.

The Mãe d’Água Reservoir is currently an ample space, filled with light and unified. Its inside suggests the design plan of a Hall church, thereby proposing a holy nature of the space.

The water from the springs spouts from the mouth of a dolphin onto a cascade, built using stones carried from the springs of the Águas Livres Aqueduct, and it flows into a vat that is 7.5m deep, with a capacity to store 5,500 m3. From this vat, four columns rise that support a vaulted cupola ceiling which in turns supports the magnificent terrace overlooking the city of Lisbon.

The western front of this reservoir holds the Register House, where the water flows that were discharged to the fountains, factories, convents and noble houses were controlled.

The Water Museum promotes and conducts free and guided tours of the Mãe d’Água das Amoreiras Reservoir.