Old Bridge

Ink/paper, 16x11

Series: The enduring Ourense.

WITH TRAJAN AND WITHOUT TRAJAN, here is the renowned bridge from sea to sea. The gothic arrogance with which the Miño jumps is enough for it. Pass it with respect, those of you who come from the North. And at the end, take off your hat and say a Hail Mary, for there is the Virgin for whom the river “runs quiet”. Pass it as pilgrims, since excellent knights did not manage to pass it, and always carry it in your memory.

Vicente Risco

THE BRIDGE,- If we are to believe the legend, the emperor Trajan was a great pontiff in the original sense of the word. All the bridges that have a patina hang on him and why not also this “emperor of bridges”, of whom it was said with consideration in other times that a tree-lined ship could pass underneath? Cushioned stones emerge at their bases. There is, therefore, no doubt that it is Roman. At the beginning of the 13th century, the bishop Don Lorenzo, confessor and friend of King San Fernando, raised it again. It was rebuilt again at the beginning of the 14th and 15th centuries, and in the 17th century, at the entrance to the city, a tower was erected, as it appears in the coat of arms that was adopted in the 19th century. It is one of the three things that there are in Ourense that there are not in Spain. And this is already saying a lot.

Ferro Couselo

See publication The enduring Ourense