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ALCANTARA

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 518 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALCANTARA , a See also:

town of western See also:Spain, in the See also:province of See also:Caceres, situated on a rocky height on the See also:left See also:bank of the See also:river See also:Tagus, 7 M. from the Portuguese frontier. Pop. (1900) 3248. Alcantara (in Arab. "the See also:bridge") owes its name to the magnificent See also:Roman bridge which spans the Tagus on the See also:north-See also:west. This was originally built about A.D. 105, in See also:honour of the Roman See also:emperor See also:Trajan and at the cost of eleven Lusitanian communities. It is entirely constructed of See also:granite blocks, without See also:cement, and consists of six See also:arches of various sizes, with a See also:total length of 616 feet and a height of about 190 ft. in the See also:middle piers, which are surmounted by a fortified gateway. One of the arches was broken down in 1213 and rebuilt in 1553; another was blown up by the See also:British troops in 18og, and, though temporarily reconstructed, was again destroyed in 1836, to prevent the passage of the Carlist forces. But in 186o the whole was restored. A small Roman See also:temple, dedicated to Trajan and other deified emperors, stood on the left bank, adjoining the bridge. It is doubtful, however, if Alcantara marks the site of any Roman town, though archaeologists have sometimes identified it either with See also:Norba Caesarea or with Interamnium.

It first became famous about 1215 as the stronghold of the knightly See also:

Order of Alcantara. Many of the See also:grand masters of this order See also:lie buried in the 13th-See also:century See also:Gothic See also:church. The town possesses another interesting church built in 1506. See Antiguedades y See also:santos de la muy See also:noble See also:villa de Alcantara, by J. Arias de Quintanaduenas (See also:Madrid, 1661); and Retrato politico de Alcantara, by L. Santibanez (Madrid, 1779).

End of Article: ALCANTARA

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