An inconsecutive work: the Azambuja canal in the middle of the 19th century

Abstract

This paper contextualises the foundation of the so-called Companhia dos Canais da Azambuja (1844). The Portuguese government contracted with the Companhia in order to carry out work aimed at making the “vala da Azambuja” navigable throughout the year, extending it to the Onias of Santarém, where a new connection with the Tagus would be opened. According to the original plans of the Dutch engineers Ortts, the works, directed by Mouzinho de Albuquerque and later by the Italian Giulio Sarti, should also contemplate the drainage of rainwater and floods that accumulated in the adjacent fields and guarantee their irrigation during the hot season. Three objectives that were difficult to reconcile in practice, as it turned out, particularly at a time when the country was undergoing major political and economic destabilisation.