The Artificio de Juanelo: the machine that raised the Tagus to the Alcázar of Toledo (1560s–1581)

Toledo sits on a granite hill wrapped by the Tagus far below in its gorge. Between the 1560s and 1581 Juanelo Turriano — the Cremonese clockmaker retained by Charles V and Philip II — built a self-acting machine of jointed timbers and paired brass vessels that lifted river water some hundred metres to the alcázar continuously, reckoned among the wonders of the age. It worked, and it also failed as a venture: it decayed within a few years, and its maker died with the crown owing his heir for it.