Ponte de Lima town, Portugal
The origins of the Ponte de Lima town are very remote. It may have been originally inhabited by a Celtic people known as the Limicos. Archaeological remains of celtic castros found here date back to 150 BC. The Romans knew the town as Forum Linicorum and it was they who first made it into a place of some importance as a centre for trade along the main Braga to Astorga road and as a point of defence along the Lima. They constructed a stone wall to surround the town and constructed a bridge over the river, a portion of which stands to this day on the north bank of the Lima. The changing course of the river necessitated an extension to the bridge in 1355 when the town recieved a royal visit from the king Dom Pedro.
The remains of the Roman bridge and the medieval bridge, towers and a portion of the town wall give to the town its distinctive character. The bridge is of particular architectural interest as it is unusually made up of a combination of fifteen semicircular and twelve pointed arches. The solitary medieval keep still standing is that of Sao Paulo and stands on the south side of the Lima overlooking the bridge. The rest of the medieval defensive wall was destroyed to allow for the expansion of the town.
The sands of the river bank are used six times a year for the oldest recorded market in Portugal and Azores Islands. Proof of this can be found within the old prison tower where the municipal library is located. On request the librarian will bring out the original Royal Charter granted to the town in 1125 by Queen Dona Teresa.
The north side of the riverbed is used during the markets for the selling of cattle and the long horned gado barroso oxen still used to plough the narrow, steep slopes of the hills of the North where modern machinery cannot cope. Below the bridge snacks of sardines and cakes are for sale to be washed down, of course, with vinho verde. Craftspeople also bring their wares from the surrounding districts and villages. Embroidery from Correlha, basketwork from Rebordoes and Facha, furniture from Arcozelo, wooden barrrels from Fornelos and tin work, lace work and wooden clogs from Ponte do Lima itself. Prices are very reasonable and it is worth haggling.
By the south bank entrance to the bridge is a small but neat square, the Praca de Camoes, in the centre of which is a seventeenth-century baroque granite fountain. The winding streets around the square are fun to explore and the traveller is almost certain to find some of the fortified sixteenth-century doorways, emblazoned with coats of arms, that are dotted around the old town. Ponte de Lima was the original home of some of the great aristocratic families of Portugal in the Middle Ages, as the great number of manor houses in the region still testifies. It is said that some of these families were established before the country itself was. Merchants, generals and explorers all came from here. The most famous was Ferdinand Magellan, the first man to circumnavigate the globe. The eighteenth-century mansion of the Counts of Aurora is probably the finest of these houses.
The most interesting church to visit is also to be found on the riverfront. The church of St Francisco has been converted into a museum. Its finest exhibits are a splendid Rococo altarpiece in the chancel, two beautifully sculpted pulpits, and several ancient statues. The church of Santo Antonio dos Capuchos next to the church of St Francis has also been secularised and dates from the fourteenth century. It houses some rare and attractive Hispano-Arab glazed tiles, as well as a series of temporary exhibitions.