Tourists gather by the Trevi fountain in Rome in this file photo from August 12, 2003. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

ROME (Reuters) - Water supplying Rome’s world-famous Trevi Fountain was cut off when a builder across town damaged a 2,000-year-old pipe, the local water company said on Wednesday.

Water had been flowing into central Rome through the “aqueduct of the virgin” since 19 BC, but it mysteriously dried up earlier this month, cutting supplies to several fountains, including the Baroque masterpiece Trevi.

A search using a waterborne video camera through the ancient pipe tracked the blockage to a house in the high-end Parioli neighbourhood on the other side of the Villa Borghese park, where builders were making a private underground car park.

A spokesman for the ACEA water company said the builder had broken the pipe, then tried to mend it with concrete, but instead had filled it in. “We’re undergoing technical checks and reckon it will take a couple of months to repair,” he said.

Tourists at Trevi -- where Anita Ekberg frolicked in the 1960s film La Dolce Vita -- did not notice the damage as the fountain was on recycle mode rather than drawing water direct from the pipe.

But many smaller Rome fountains spluttered to a halt and the Trevi Fountain itself will soon need to have its water replaced.

While ACEA works on repairing the pipe -- and seeks damages against the builder -- it will divert water from another, younger pipe. The “aqueduct of Paul” has been bringing water to Rome from a lake north of the city only since 2 AD.