Braga

Bracara Augusta

Camino de la Geira y los Arrieiros

Distrito de BragaPortugal

From the Latin Bracara Augusta, 'the Bracara of Augustus': the name of the pre-Roman bracari people joined to that of the emperor who founded the city. Braga is the contraction of Bracara.

The name is an imperial foundation with a double signature. Augustus raised the city around 16 BC, after the wars against the peoples of the northwest, and gave it the name of those who already lived there —⁠the bracari, a tribe of the callaeci⁠— followed by his own: Bracara Augusta, 'the emperor's Bracara'. It is the Roman pattern par excellence, the same as Emerita Augusta (Mérida) or Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza): the indigenous ethnonym Rome respects, plus the seal of the power that absorbs it. Bracara was capital of its conventus, then of all Gallaecia, and finally of the Suevic kingdom. From here, from kilometre zero, the miles of the Via Nova set out: the milestones of the whole Camino count the distance back to Braga.

Evolution of the name

  1. Bracara Augusta Latin founded c. 16 BC
  2. Bracara late Latin
  3. Braga Portuguese medieval – modern

Reflections, to the letter

You are at kilometre zero. Braga is the Romans' Bracara Augusta: the name of the bracari, the tribe who lived here, plus that of the emperor Augustus who refounded it. Every milestone you will see from now on —⁠and in the Gerês you will see many, more than on any other stretch of the Empire⁠— counts the miles back to this city. The Camino de la Geira begins by counting backwards: each stone tells you how far you have walked from Braga, not how far is left to Santiago.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Sources

  • Tranoy, A. — La Galice romaine (París: Publications du Centre Pierre Paris, 1981)
  • Universidade do Minho — proyecto Bracara Augusta (Unidade de Arqueologia)

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Camino de la Geira y los Arrieiros

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Pazos de Arenteiro
  3. Ribadavia
  4. Cortegada
  5. Lobios
  6. Baños de Riocaldo
  7. Portela do Homem
  8. Braga