page_title: Portuguese Romanesque architecture
section_title: Bridges
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese Romanesque architecture / Civil and military architecture / Bridges
caption_attribution_description: English: Bridge of the Porto situated over the river Cávado, between Braga and Amares.
context_page_description: The Romanesque style of architecture was introduced in Portugal between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century. In general, Portuguese cathedrals have a heavy, fortress-like appearance, with crenellations and few decorative elements apart from portals and windows. Portuguese Romanesque cathedrals were later extensively modified, among others the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, although it only had some minor changes.
  Chronological and geographical distribution of Romanesque buildings in Portugal are intimately connected with the territorial organization emerging from the Reconquista, being the fundamental reason for the differences between a locally influenced artistical phenomenon in the North of the country and a more "international" kind in buildings like Coimbra and Lisbon cathedrals. Romanesque architecture first developed in Minho and Douro regions spreading later southwards to Coimbra. It is in the rural areas of the northwest and center regions that Romanesque buildings are more concentrated, being more dense in the margins of rivers Douro and Mondego.
context_section_description: Construction activity of bridges during the Middle Ages is directly related to the need of restoring the old Roman road system that was already obsolete, in order to develop new connections and boost trading. Since the end of the 11th century that need was so urgent that building bridges and restoring the paveways were activities that started to be considered as pious. São Gonçalo of Amarante and São Lourenço Mendes, sponsors of the construction of Amarante and Cavês bridges, respectively, were called saints by popular acclamation, such as Saint Benizet of Avignon (France) or Sán Domingos da Calçada (La Rioja (Spain)), showing how much this phenomenon of bridge and road construction were considered extremely important elsewhere in Europe.
  In the will of monarchs, noblemen and clergymen there are many references to donations for building bridges, King D.Afonso Henriques (1109–1185) himself contributed to the construction of Coimbra, Ave and Piares (Douro river) bridges.
  The stonemasons of the Romanesque period were more careful about the structural design and maintenance of bridges than their previous Roman counterparts, and looked for more solid grounds to build them, and because of that, according to Carlos Alberto Ferreira de Almeida, medieval bridges resisted better against the danger of floodings and the test of time.
  Romanesque bridges present large arches whose height had to be balanced with the use of abutments at each end by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. Bridge builders also improved on the Roman structures by using narrower piers, thinner arch barrels and lower span-rise ratios.
  Examples of these are the bridges of Lagoncinha (12th century), over the Ave River, with six arches, Prado bridge over the Cávado River (11th century), with nine arches and Cavês bridge over the Tâmega River (13th century).
  Bridge building deeply shaped the Portuguese medieval landscape. Among the Romanesque civil architecture and by the economical and technical means used for their construction, the building of bridges had the most impact in everyday life, benefiting communication between people.
caption: Porto Bridge over the Cávado River, built in the 11th century.
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