The Narrows of Segovia

Before the Industrial Revolution, there was no real need to waste much of a city's area on streets and roads. In the culture that was derived from the Roman Empire, gardens and open spaces were limited. Wood was relatively expensive and cement and tile were cheap. The streets are paved with "setts" usually made of granite and usually packed in sand. Setts are often confused with "cobblestones." The difference is that a sett is a quarried stone of a specific shape and cobblestone is a naturally rounded stone of a uniform size. The sett blocks are called sampietrini in Latin derived countries. The edges of the streets and roads made of setts are usually larger granite blocks called "kerbs." In American English we call our cement relatives "curbs." But the original kerbs were not always raised. If you look closely at the image above, you can see larger stones set in a line down the middle of the street. If you were standing on this street, you would also notice that the street is built so that water runs to the middle of the street.