Roman bridges occupy a position of primary interest in the road system of Roman Sardinia.
They are works of art in the road network whose belonging to Roman architecture is easily comparable with those in other provinces, despite the remodeling that has taken place over the centuries.
The Roman bridge of Sant’Antioco, today heavily remodeled in its structure, represents a uniqueness because of its location in the territory.
Unlike the other bridges in Roman Sardinia it connects the mainland to an island and not the ford of rivers or unevenness, it is an integral part of the Roman road Karalibus Sulcos, which starting from Sulci, caput viae as the milestones attest to us, crosses the Cixerri Valley to reach the city of Karales, thus avoiding crossing the more tortuous coastal road the Tibulas-Sulcis.
Of its importance, and the need for restoration work, we have news a few years after the repopulation of the island.
In fact, the State Archives of Turin preserves a file containing the “CALCULATION formed by the R.o Misuratore Viana of the expense most necessary to make trafficable the Ancient Bridge, which connects the Island of S.t Antioco with the Littoral of the Kingdom,” dated July 17, 1774.
Today, after restorations in 1858, 1893 and 1920, the bridge stands on a meadow, the result of a fill implemented around 1940 to allow military vehicles to easily reach the quay or transport goods by rubber-tired vehicles to the Sardinian mainland, without passing through the Roman bridge.
In 2006, a restoration project made it possible to preserve the monument, which was in danger of irreversible deterioration, especially of its most delicate parts such as the sandstone vaults and parapets, the latter of which had not been original perhaps since the early Middle Ages.
