A young woman who worked as a water carrier, fed up with dragging her jug up the steep streets of the city, agreed to a bargain with the devil: he would claim her soul if, before the cock crowed, the water reached her front door.

Aware of her guilt, the young woman prayed until she was exhausted to avoid losing her soul. Meanwhile, a storm had broken out and the little devil was working flat out. Suddenly the cock crowed and the Devil let out a blood-curdling scream: because of a single stone left unplaced, he had lost the girl’s soul.

She confessed her guilt to the people of Segovia who, after cleansing the arches with holy water to remove the traces of sulphur, happily accepted the city’s new skyline.

And they say… that the holes still visible in the stones are the hoofprints of the devil…

Today, the city pays tribute to this beautiful legend with the sculpture of the little devil of Segovia, the ‘true’ architect of the Aqueduct. This sculpture depicts the defeated devil holding the last stone of the Aqueduct that he had yet to place, taking a selfie with his unfinished work.

The sculpture, the work of José Antonio Abella, is located on Calle San Juan, from where we can enjoy one of the best panoramic views of the two-thousand-year-old Aqueduct.