The aqueduct of Los Arcos or Traída de las Aguas is one of the most important engineering works of the Spanish Renaissance.

Its construction responded to the need to improve the water supply to the city of Teruel, which until then had depended on the large cisterns built in the last quarter of the 14th century in what is now Plaza Carlos Castel and several smaller wells and cisterns distributed throughout other parts of the city centre. Work began on the water supply system in 1537, drawing water from the Peña del Macho, a spring located halfway between Teruel and Valdecebro, but it was soon abandoned due to its high cost.

In 1551, the Council of Teruel commissioned Quinto Pierres Bedel, a French architect who had successfully completed the complicated underpinning of the Mudejar tower of San Martín, to restart the construction of the water supply. Despite the difficulties, the works progressed at a good pace and in 1552 the section between the Peña del Macho and the Carrel had already been completed. It had been necessary to lay a 4450 m pipeline made of some 12,000 ceramic arcaduces; it had 140 chambers and two underground mines (some 190 m long), crossing two ravines by means of arcades; at a later date two new arches and a mine were added in order to improve the route at three conflictive points.

To cross the ravine that delimited the city to the northeast, the last great orographic obstacle, Bedel designed Los Arcos, the structure that gives its name to the whole of the Traída. This emblematic construction is clearly classically inspired and masterfully combines its utilitarian character (aqueduct and viaduct) with its representative character. It consists of two levels, the upper one with six arches and the lower one with two.

Once Los Arcos was completed in 1554, the next step was to resolve the complicated distribution of water in an already built-up city with significant topographical irregularities. In addition to the supply points needed to meet the demands of the local residents, it was necessary to create three supplementary fountains demanded by D. Hernando de Aragón, Archbishop of Zaragoza, in exchange for the extension of the deadline for the contribution for the execution of the work charged to the clerics of Teruel.

Amidst great popular expectation, the water reached the Fountain of the Plaza Mayor in 1558. In the following years, the urban layout of the Traída was completed, until a total of 14 water points were installed, fed by a pipeline of almost 2,500 m, made of some 6,500 ceramic arcaduces and comprising a mine, seven large arches (some of considerable size) and another 40 smaller underground arches. Outside the historic centre, the waters of the Traída also reached the Arrabal, although the information available on this branch is extremely scarce.

The Traída de Aguas also included a series of arbels, most of which were built during the late Middle Ages, through which the excess water from the system was channelled, discharging it directly into ravines or incorporating it into the irrigation systems. These large collectors, which also received the rainwater, have a total of more than 900 m of underground galleries.

The construction of the Traída was not without its problems. In 1566 it was necessary to move two of the fountains built in 1559, as they generated damp in the churches of San Martín and Santiago. In addition, the economic costs of the construction made it necessary to impose new municipal taxes that remained in force until at least 1585. In 1583, a general visit was made to the whole of the Traída de Aguas, giving a detailed description of it (except for the Arrabal section), generating an essential document for the knowledge of the Renaissance conduction.