ROMAN BRIDGE OF CALAMOCHA

The second Roman bridge over Jiloca river it is located in the old part of Calamocha (Teruel). In fact there are some doubts about the date of the bridge, because some scholars think that it is a medieval bridge. More recent studies consider that this civil work had a first phase in the Roman age, in the I century a. C., but it suffered some transformations in the medieval age –its final aspect is due to this period in large measure- and in the XVI century. Its modern aspect is due to a restoration in 1992 and now it is catalogued as a Good of Cultural Interest since 2001. The bridge was included within a fenced garden both sides of the river and it shapes a whole with a wheat mill and a cupper drop hammer.		Roman bridge of Calamocha; view from upstream face. (Photo: Roberto Lérida Lafarga 23/04/2008)

This bridge is simpler than those of Luco de Jiloca, with only a reduced arch over the river and its piers, but there are not preserved its parapets. This good built bridge have an arch made of blocks of stone, with pointed shape, and it is 7,7 metres high and 2,6 metres wide. Its arch is 6 metres wide and its voussoirs are 0,60 metres large. The building technique is opus quadratus, i. e., big blocks of limestone with dry junction –without mortar- and with a good connexion between the blocks of stone of the pier walls and its voussoirs; this connexions allowed that the place where the arch is supported by the piers could be further back and the arch was not too many pointed. In 1832 Ceán Bermúdez asserted that still there were preserved remains of a Roman settlement in Calamocha and some scholars thinks that Calamocha should be identified with the Roman Albonica –or Agiria?- (nevertheless, you can see the Itinerarium Antoninum).		Roman bridge of Calamocha over Jiloca river; detail dof the upstreamface. (Photo: Roberto Lérida Lafarga 23/04/2008)

		SOURCES: - MARTÍN, Francisco y HERRERO Fernando: “Patrimonio fluvial de Calamocha”, web del Centro de Estudios del Jiloca (http://www.xiloca.com/data/Naturaleza/Rio%20Jiloca/Pueblos/Calamocha.htm) - ALMAGRO BASCH, Martín,”Un puente romano desconocido”, Ampurias 2 (1940), pp. 176-177