Spain: Pont del Diable, Tarragona

July 2015

On my first visit to Madrid, AFVdR and I visited Segovia and saw its famous aqueduct that cuts right through the center of town. That "ruin" impressed me immensely. Spain holds one more equally complete aqueduct outside of Tarragona - I wanted to see it (especially after discovering that Tarragona's old town, while lovely, was extremely small and I had time on my hands).

The Ferreres Aqueduct, also known as the Pont del Diable; English: "Devil's Bridge"), is an ancient bridge, part of one of the Roman aqueducts that supplied water to the ancient city of Tarraco, today Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. The bridge is located 4 km north of the city and is part of the Archaeological Ensemble of Tarraco. The Tarraco aqueduct took water from the Francolí river, 15 km north of Tarragona. It probably dates from the time of the emperor Augustus.

(Wikipedia)

Four kilometers one way is a little too much walking on a day-trip, so I opted for the bus. Unfortunately, the stop is just alongside a highway and the bridge is not that well sign-marked, but I did find it. Again, I found myself impressed with Roman engineering. The setting in the countryside rather than the middle of a town gave it a completely different feel. I wandered under and above it. Just wow...

Then it came time to return to Tarragona and it was not only unclear where the return bus stop was, but also if any bus was coming at all. Suddenly, I felt like I was stuck along a highway in Spain without much sense of where I was. Eventually, the bus did come and I did make it back to town to catch the train to my hotel near Barcelona - but not without some moments of real anxiety.

Maybe it is called the Devil's Bridge for a reason?