Pontecesures
Ponte Cesures
Camino Portugués · Camino Portugués de la Costa
PontevedraGalicia
Here Camino Portugués and Camino Portugués de la Costa converge. It is one of the points where the pilgrim shares the way with those arriving by another route.
Compound of ponte 'bridge' + Cesures, a toponym of disputed origin: possible Latin caesura 'cutting, passage' —referring to the meander of the Ulla that the bridge spans—, or an opaque pre-Roman root.
The toponym emerges in medieval documents as Ponte Caesarae (10th century) and Ponte Cesures (12th century), referring to the bridge over the river Ulla at the last crossing before Santiago. The etymology of the second element is debated: Latin caesura 'cutting, passage, caesura' fits the geography of the place —the Ulla traces a sharp gorge here that the Roman bridge spanned—; other onomasts posit a pre-Roman hydronymic root kes-. The form Cesures is plural —'the cuttings' or 'the passages'—, a frequent marker in Galician toponyms of Roman origin. The Cesures bridge, documented as early as the 1st century by Pliny, was one of the longest Roman engineering works in the Iberian northwest.
Evolution of the name
- Caesura / Cesures Latin / Galician-Portuguese 6th — 12th century
- Ponte Cesures / Pontecesures modern Galician from the 13th century
Glossary
- 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.
- Hydronymic
- Pertaining to hydronyms (place names from watercourses).
- Onomatologist
- A specialist in onomastics, the linguistic discipline that studies proper names — of persons (anthroponyms), places (toponyms) and institutions.
- Roman road
- A stone-paved Roman highway, part of the imperial communications network (Via Aquitana, Via Augusta, Iter ab Asturica); many such roads became medieval routes and, later, stretches of the Camino de Santiago.
Sources
- Filgueira Valverde, X. — Toponimia gallega
- Plinio el Viejo — Naturalis Historia, IV, 111
- Cabeza Quiles, F. — Os nomes da terra
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Camino Portugués