The Sordo bridge

A roman bridge in Val Ponci

Only the ramps remain of the Sordo bridge while the arch that arched over Rio Ponci was lost.

This bridge was also part of the Augustan structures of the via Iulia Augusta, initiated by the emperor Augustus in 13 BCE so to connect the area of the Po Valley to southern Gaul. The road reached the coast at Vada Sabatia (Vado Ligure). Of all the infrastructures of this roman road in Val Ponci there are five bridges datable between the Augustan age and 125 CE

The two ramps of the bridge are delimited by lateral abutments that are characterised by regular quadrangular blocks, placed in horizontal layers and made only of Finale Stone, all in the wall building technique called petit appareil or “small apparatus”. In some parts the original mortar joints have been preserved.

A large rectangular block, placed at the sides of the ramps, is what remains of the original setting of the arch of the bridge that had a certain monumentality. On the southern side of the river parts of the bridge were reused in making rural walls.

Archaeological excavations carried out around the bridge brought evidence of how this part of the via Iulia Augusta presented the characteristics of a “via glareata”, an earthen road with a gravelled surface, typical of roman roads close to urban centres.