Alcántara - Puente de Alcántara

The "Puente de Alcántara" is considered the most important surviving Roman bridge structure.

The bridge stretches 194 meters in length with six arches of different widths. Its 8-meter-wide roadway is approximately 50 meters above the Tajo River, and the total height of the structure is 71 meters. Towards the middle of the bridge, there is a 14-meter-high honorary arch dedicated to Emperor Trajan.

The road bridge, which is still in use today, was built in about five years during the time of Emperor Trajan. It was probably completed in 105 or 106 AD.
The small temple next to the bridge is one of only two fully preserved Roman temples on the Iberian Peninsula. It contains the tomb of the bridge's builder, Caius Iulius Lacer, probably a Roman military engineer. The Romans already recognized Lacer's genius. Inside there is a stone tablet with the inscription:

"Pontem perpetui mansurum in saecula mundi fecit divina nobilis arte Lacer"


The bridge to stay forever in the centuries of the eternal course of the world, the praiseworthy Lacer created with divine art...