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 Arabs valued the bridge's structural and strategic importance so highly that they named the nearby settlement al-Qantara, meaning "the bridge." The geographer al-Idrisi described the bridge as one of the wonders of the world in his description of Spain in the 12th century.

To the right is a small temple that contains the tomb of the bridge's builder, Caius Iulius Lacer, presumably a Roman military engineer. Along with the Temple of Vic, it is one of only two completely preserved Roman temples on the Iberian Peninsula.