Alminhas da Ponte

The Alminhas do Ponte

The Alminhas da Ponte , literally in German: Little souls of the bridge , are a wayside shrine that was erected on the Ribeira of the Portuguese city of Porto .

Alminhas have been common places of worship in Portugal since the 18th century for the intercession of Christ or the saints for the poor souls ( Portuguese Alminhas 'little souls' ) in purgatory . They can be designed as a wayside shrine, a stele , a shrine or a small chapel.

The wayside shrine Alminhas da Ponte is a bas-relief set into the bank reinforcement , which the sculptor José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes created in 1897. The depiction is reminiscent of March 29, 1809, when, when a ship bridge , the Ponte das Barcas , collapsed , thousands of people who fled from the troops of Marshal Soult who were invading the city were killed in the floods of the Douro .

Today the citizens of the city put flowers and candles on the wayside shrine to commemorate the tragedy.

Footnotes

↑ Foteini Vlachou: Painting the Battle of Porto, March 29, 1809: The “desastre da ponte das barcas” in its Portuguese and French context. In: Revista de Estudos Anglo-Portugueses. Vol. 18, 2009, pp. 49–67; for estimates of the number of victims, see pp. 49–50.

Web links

Commons : Alminhas da Ponte - Collection of images, videos and audio files

41.140677777778 -8.611025Coordinates: 41 ° 8 ′ 26.4 " N , 8 ° 36 ′ 39.7" W.

[1] Foteini Vlachou: Painting the Battle of Porto, March 29, 1809: The “desastre da ponte das barcas” in its Portuguese and French context. In: Revista de Estudos Anglo-Portugueses. Vol. 18, 2009, pp. 49–67; for estimates of the number of victims, see pp. 49–50.