The view describes the confluence of the two canals, Maggiore and Comune, in the final stretch of their urban route near the street called Borgo del Naviglio in Parma. They flowed from the slopes of the Apennines. Towards the beginning of Borgo del Naviglio, in the extreme north-east limit of the city walls, the two canals rejoined to form a single one that left the city: the Naviglio, used since the 12th century as a waterway for Coenzo and then for Colorno. Excavated several times (by Margherita Farnese in 1628), the canal was no longer navigable in the early 19th century.