Sewers and Waste Disposal in Medieval Europe
This paper will examine the sewers and waste disposal systems employed in Medieval European cities. Although all major towns and cities had provisions for drainage and waste disposal, the paper will focus primarily on London and Paris, two of the largest and most modern cities in Europe at that time. In particular, the paper will address each system separately and then discuss how the two systems became intertwined.
Sewers and the disposal of human waste were originally two separate systems. Sewers were originally intended to drain rain and flood water from towns and cities. In fact, some of the sewers in cities such as Paris and London may have originally been constructed by the Romans for just such a purpose, copying a system used in Rome itself. These sewers were nothing more than open canals which drained into streams and major rivers (the Seine in Paris and the Thames in London) (Buer 102).
The disposal of human and animal waste, although just as vital as the drainage of rain and flood water, was much more haphazard. Those persons fortunate enough to live in castles had access to tower chambers, or warderobes, which emptied into either cesspools (cesspits) or canals (or sewers) leading to the moat outside the castle walls. Rural peasants simply relieved themselves in the fields, burying their waste on the spot. Those who lived in the cities had to use other means and the waste had to be disposed of more thoroughly, lest the city become too filthy for habitation (Russell 486).
This segregation officially continued throughout the Middle Ages; in fact, the first citywide sewer systems intended to transport human waste out of cities were not constructed until the 1840s (Lewis 49).The reason for this arrangement was that floods presented a serious problem for all cities situated near rivers; sewers were vital for drainage in these cities. In order for sewers to operate properly t...