Ponte de Noceifas - A Ponte, A cañiza, Pontevedra, Galicia, España
Posted by: 
Ariberna
N 42° 10.949 W 008° 14.261
29T E 562952 N 4670318
medieval or XVIII century?
Waymark Code: WM13C3A
Location: Galicia, Spain
Date Posted: 11/05/2020
Views: 1
In Galicia there is the custom of naming as "Roman" those bridges whose origin is lost in memory. For this reason we will see in many tourist guides and municipal brochures the existence of a large number of "Roman bridges". However, there are very few that we know that maintain something of that ancient structure. It is true that many medieval roads followed in the footsteps of Galician-Roman roads and surely took advantage of previously existing structures.
But the size and importance of these roads was not vital for the Roman Empire, so it is difficult for us to find important constructions on these roads of a secondary nature, much less that they had been maintained for hundreds of years. The construction of good bridges required a good economic investment, abundant manpower and necessarily the presence of engineers. The few that remained were modified through the centuries and little or nothing remains of their origin.
In the 18th century there was a great profitable trade between the wine-producing areas of O Ribeiro with the bourgeois regions of northern Galicia and the Rias Baixas coast. For this reason, there was a large investment in these roads and in their maintenance. The muleteers who came from Crecente probably took advantage of the Ribadil valley for their access to the north of this Comarca da Paradanta.
The parish of O Couto in A Cañiza is crossed by the Ribadil river, a tributary of the Miño. It is here, in Noceifas, in the place of A Ponte, where one of those bridges is still conserved that even the council of A Cañiza considers to be Roman.
The existing toponymy in the surroundings warns us of the passage of some road that would surely link Crecente with A Cañiza. Examples of these place names in the surroundings are A Corredoira, A Costoia, A Encrucillada ...
We do not know its dating but due to its characteristics we would dare to affirm that it is a bridge from the 18th century. It consists of a single arch and its slope is in the shape of a mule's back. It has three spillways that seem to have been added a posteriori due to a probable modification of the riverbed destined to some milling and irrigation activity.
The existence of a nucleus of houses of centenary origin (today modified) next to the bridge is the only thing that could make us think of a medieval past since it is a characteristic of many bridges of that time.
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