Ponte Ulla

A Coruña · La CoruñaGalicia

Here Vía de la Plata and Camino Miñoto Ribeiro converge. It is one of the points where the pilgrim shares the way with those arriving by another route.

Transparent compound: ponte (Latin pontem, 'bridge') + Ulla, the pre-Roman hydronym of the river the bridge crosses. Ulla has disputed etymology: possibly pre-Indo-European or Celtic with a hydronymic root ul-.

Toponym of the same pattern as Pontevedra (old bridge) or Pontecesures (bridge of the cuttings): river name + crossing. Ponte, from the Latin pontem, is the Indo-European root for a road crossing (also of pontiff: 'bridge-builder'). The hydronym Ulla is among the oldest river names in the northwestern Peninsula: it is attested in Ptolemy's Geographia (2nd century) as Oulla, a natural border between the territories of the Callaeci (Gallaecians) and the Artabri. Its etymology remains open: the pre-Roman hypothesis (root ul- of European hydronymy) and the Celtic (variant of ouill- with hydronymic value) coexist without consensus. The Ulla is the most flowing entirely Galician river, and the Roman Bridge of Ponte Ulla —⁠1st century, rebuilt in the medieval period⁠— is still the main crossing toward Santiago from the south. Here the Sanabrés pilgrim meets the geographical confluence with the Camino Portugués: a few kilometres north lies Padrón, and from there 20 km to Santiago.

Evolution of the name

Ulla (hidrónimo) pre-Roman before the 1st century BC
Ponte Ulla medieval Galician from the 12th century

Reflections, to the letter

The name is the bridge and the river it crosses: ponte over the Ulla, the pre-Roman name of the most powerful river contained entirely within Galicia. The old bridge that christened the place went up in the sixteenth century, and the river's floods swept away so many versions that today's pilgrim treads the eighteenth-century span. Some twenty kilometres remain to Santiago: whoever came from Seville along the Plata and the Sanabres has walked a thousand to reach this last crossing of water.

Glossary

Attested: A form or word documented in writing in historical sources; opposed to "reconstructed" (forms proposed by comparative inference but not actually documented).
Etymology: The origin and history of a word and the phonetic and semantic changes it has undergone. An etymology may be confirmed, probable or disputed depending on documentary attestations and linguistic parallels.
Hydronym: A place name derived from the name of a river, lake or watercourse (Carrión, Eo, Sella, Deba, Cueza).
Hydronymic: Pertaining to hydronyms (place names from watercourses).
Pre-Roman: Prior to the Romanisation of the Iberian peninsula (3rd century BC); applied to toponyms, linguistic roots and populations.

Sources

Ptolomeo — Geographia, II, 6
Cabeza Quiles, F. — Os nomes da terra

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Vía de la Plata

Evolution of the name

Reflections, to the letter

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

Glossary

Sources