Ponte de Veiga

A single-arch stone Bridge, slightly broken, with voussoirs [stones forming the arch], narrow and long, while showing traces of masonry, it constitutes an example of a Gothic crossing, whose construction period would fall within the first half of the 15th century. Located in the village of Torno (Lousada), once the patronage of the Monastery of Pombeiro (Felgueiras) and at the centre of an agricultural region heavily exploited during the Middle Ages (as bears witness the toponym Veiga, that means tilled plain), it is likely that its construction was conducted by the abbots of that Monastery, intended to ensure the local or regional traffic over the river Sousa. This was the ancient route followed from the old sanctuary of Our Lady Appeared leading to Unhão, the municipality of which this Bridge was a part until the 19th century and which currently forms one of the parishes of the present-day municipality of Felgueiras. More than a symbol of national or trans-regional routes, often associated with pilgrimage routes, the Bridge of Veiga falls in the category of municipal or parish crossing, serving feudal, secular or ecclesiastical interests, and ensuring the circulation and flow between the valleys of the still small river Sousa.