Bibei Bridge

The bridge was built with dressed granite and rustic horizontal masonry in the form of a rope-work arrangement up to the start of the arches. Row heights are uneven. The bridge basically consists of three arches. The central arch measures 20 metres and the lateral ones 6.40 and 10.30 metres, the width of the pillars is 5 metres.

Such a perfect design is noteworthy, since it is not easy to harmonise the lateral arches with the central arch because the central arch span is more than twice as large as the lateral arch spans. The lateral arches start very close to the ground and use opus quadrata in the voussoirs and in the stonework of the tympani. The careful padding of the interior, purposely designed to be dry-set (without mortar and grout), contrasts with the snub-nosed style of the exterior. The pillars have triangular cutwaters that are at the level of the central starter and are crowned with pyramidal shadows, which are set very low. The pavement is perfectly flat.

The bridge was built on the Via XVIII or Via Nova (Geira) in the Antonine Itinerary. The following stonemasonry marks remain from its manufacture: X, CX, CXI. It probably belonged to the time of Trajan and was probably built between 114-119 AD.

It has the status of National Historic-Artistic Monument and is one of the best-preserved Roman bridges in Hispania, probably because it never lost its function as a useful structure. Via XVIII first passed over the bridge, followed by the different roads that replaced it over the centuries, until the N-120 (now the C-536) this past century.

The Pericus and Domitian milestone from 80 AD and an honorary stone dedicated to the emperor Trajan are both nearby. Both inscriptions appear on prismatic plinths with a suggested reading. The remains of the Roman road are perfectly recognisable in the immediate area.