Segura Bridge is a

Roman bridge The ancient Romans were the first civilization to build large, permanent bridges. Early Roman bridges used techniques introduced by Etruscan immigrants, but the Romans improved those skills, developing and enhancing methods such as arches and k ...

connecting Segura, in

Idanha-a-Nova Idanha-a-Nova ( ), officially the Town of Idanha-a-Nova (), is a town and municipality in the district of Castelo Branco, in east-central Portugal. A border municipality with Spain, the population of the municipality in 2011 was 9,716, in an area ...

, Portugal, to the Spanish municipality of

Alcántara Alcántara () is a municipality in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain, on the Tagus, near Portugal. The toponym is from the Arabic word ''al-Qanṭarah'' (القنطرة) meaning "the bridge". History Archaeological findings have atte ...

. The bridge was built over the Erges river, a tributary of the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; ; ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales between Cuenca and Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally westward, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon. Name T ...

. It has five

arches An arch is a curved vertical structure span (engineering), spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th mill ...

; only two of the original Roman arches, the ones closer to both river banks, survive to this day, with the rest being added during reconstructions in the 16th and 19th centuries. The stonemason work done during the 1571 reconstruction of two of the arches is considered to be "barely distinguishable" from the original.

Location

Located on the border between Spain and Portugal, on the Spanish side the bridge is situated within the municipality of

in the

province of Cáceres The province of Cáceres (; ; ; ) is a province of western Spain, and makes up the northern half of the autonomous community of Extremadura. Its capital is the city of Cáceres. Other cities in the province include Plasencia, Coria, Navalm ...

. It can be reached via the regional road EX-207 from the nearby town of Piedras Albas. On the Portuguese side, it connects to a local road leading to the town of Segura, from which the bridge takes its name.

Construction and Features

The bridge was built in the Roman province of

Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province encompassing most of modern-day Portugal (south of the Douro River) and a large portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and Province of Salamanca). Romans named the region after th ...

to extend the

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

that connected ''Norba Caesarina'', along the

Vía de la Plata The Vía de La Plata (Silver Way) or Ruta de la Plata (Silver Route) is an ancient commercial and pilgrimage path that crosses the west of Spain from north to south, connecting Mérida, Spain, Mérida to Astorga, Spain, Astorga. An extended form ...

, with the ''civitas Egitania'' (

Idanha-a-Velha Idanha-a-Velha (Idanha "the old") is a village in the civil parish (''freguesia'') of Monsanto e Idanha-a-Velha, in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova (Idanha "the new"), central eastern Portugal, and the site of ancient Egitânia, a former bisho ...

, Portugal) and Bracara Augusta (

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

, Portugal). Its purpose was to span the Erjas River, whose course delineates the border between Spain and Portugal. Thus, the bridge served as an international crossing point between the two countries. The bridge was constructed over the gorge created by the Erjas river in the local

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

. It comprises five arches with barrel vaults; the central arch spans 10.5 m, which is larger than the 7.5 m of the four side arches. Its structure is made of ashlar masonry with cushioned pink granite blocks, measuring 2.85 to 3 m in section. The two arches on the edges are original Roman constructions, as are all the piers, while the other three arches have been rebuilt during the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. The bridge features triangular section cutwaters up to a height of 1.20 m from the piers. The bridge's state of preservation is good, and it remains in use. However, in 2007, there was some controversy over actions taken on the footings and cutwaters of the piers, which were covered with reinforced concrete.

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Location

Construction and Features

See also

References

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Further reading