Photos

Two different branches, a roman and a medieval one constitute this bridge. The construction of this building draws back probably to the 1st century since the way opened by the Emperor Augustus passes over it. The medieval bridge has gothic characteristics and was probably finished 1370, by the time King D. Pedro I had the village fortified; King D. Manuel had the paving and the merlons done in 1504 and the two original towers that flanked it, along with great part of the defense urban system, were demolished in the second half of the 19th century due to traffic conditions. The simple roman bridge has a sloping deck over 7 full center ogival arches, which are irregularly arranged and have different spans, one of them covered by the plot where the church Igreja de Santo António stands and another one closed up down the stream. Two of the seventeen ogival arches of the Gothic bridge were hidden by the improvements carried out in Praça Camões; prismatic cutwaters crowned by spans also with ogival arch and, at the center, its Latin cross with faceted column, fleur-de-lis arms and shield in the capital are prominent.