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 ...
connecting Segura, in
Idanha-a-Nova
Idanha-a-Nova () is a town and surrounding 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 of 1416.34 km2, making it ...
, Portugal, to the Spanish municipality of
Alcántara. The bridge was built over the
Erges river, a tributary of the
Tagus
The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to e ...
. It has five
arches
An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it.
Arches may be synonymous with vault ...
; 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.
See also
*
List of Roman bridges
This is a list of Roman bridges. The Romans were the world's first major bridge builders. The following list constitutes an attempt to list all known surviving remains of Roman bridges.
A Roman bridge in the sense of this article includes an ...
*
List of bridges in Portugal
This list of bridges in Portugal lists bridges of particular historical, scenic, architectural or engineering interest. Road and railway bridges, viaducts, aqueducts and footbridges are included.
Historical and architectural interest bridges
...
References
Sources
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
Bridges in Portugal
Bridges in Castelo Branco District
Segura
Segura (, ; la, Thader; ar, شقورة, Shaqūrah, or ) is a medium-sized river in southeastern Spain. It has its source in the Sierra de Segura.
Course
The river begins at Santiago Pontones ( province of Jaén), passes Calasparra, C ...
{{Portugal-bridge-struct-stub