Under the name of the Argales water journey, we know the hydraulic engineering work built between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century to supply water to the city of Valladolid. Since the end of the Middle Ages, the city has been striving to obtain a public water supply through a system of fountains that would allow it to avoid changes in the flow of the Pisuerga River. This task, in which monarchs, the monks of the monastery of San Benito, the town council and some families took part, bore fruit in the so-called "viajes de aguas", pipelines to transport water from the springs to the urban fountains.

Going back to its origins, we should bear in mind that in 1441 King John II of Castile donated some land to the monks of San Benito, for their use and enjoyment, in the area known as Argales, where there was a spring. With the support of the authorities, the prior decided to build an aqueduct (made of terracotta pipes) to the monastery, which was completed in 1443. However, the continuous maintenance required and the irregularity of the flow led the monks to agree with the town council to cede the water supply, which was carried out in 1584 with a commitment on the part of the city to maintain the aqueduct and to convey the water to the monastery.

A commission was then set up, with the collaboration of the engineers Benito Morales and Francisco de Montalbán, in charge of laying out the new conduit and the possible location of the future fountains, directed by the architect Juan de Herrera, while others, such as Juan de Nates and Diego de Praves, carried out the work, which began in 1586. Of the eight fountains planned, only three were built: Puerta del Campo, Fuente Dorada and Rinconada, the others being Angustias, Chancillería, Plaza de la Universidad, Prado de la Magdalena and San Andrés. The works were completed in 1622, and in subsequent centuries the supply network and the number of fountains were extended, including Caño Argales and Estación, for example. In 1974, after the Provincial Health Authority declared its water to be non-drinkable, the Argales spring was closed.

The pipeline was 5 kilometres long, the first section being above ground and the rest of the route underground, and 32 chambers or boxes were built to collect the water, regulate it, filter out impurities and bridge the unevenness. Of these, 27 were outside the city, of which only 14 have survived; they are built of stone, have a quadrangular floor plan, a lintelled door, a north-facing window to renew the air and a pyramidal or gabled roof.

Of the three fountains that were originally built, only two remain, although they have been renovated. On the one hand, the Fuente Dorada fountain located in the current Plaza de Fuente Dorada, formerly called Gallinería Vieja, which changed its name in the 17th century due to a bronze ball and spire that adorned the fountain, and one of whose parts is currently located in the Plaza de la Trinidad, opposite the public library; on the other hand, the one in Plaza Rinconada, at the back of the Town Hall. Later, the Argales spring provided water to other fountains such as Caño Argales, which gives its name to a square, or the one in what is now Estación street, opposite Panaderos street.

A few years after its closure in 1974, the Provincial Commission of Historical and Artistic Heritage of Valladolid requested, on the basis of the scarcity of this type of construction, perhaps the only one of its kind in Spain according to Professor Juan José Martín González, the declaration of the Argales fountains as a national monument, which took place in 1982. However, despite such protection, the condition of the fountains deteriorated over the years due to the looting of the materials and their improper use, so that between 1999 and 2003 the Valladolid City Council carried out a rehabilitation plan at a cost of one million euros, with a project drawn up by the architect Javier Blanco Martín.