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Walking up the street of the Church towards the old walled town of Sant Sadurní, the visitor comes across the Portal de Ponent, popularly known as the Roman Bridge, although, in reality, the work is from the modern period (16th to 17th centuries) and preserves only the construction tradition of the medieval bridge that existed in the same place. The portal, which served as a western access point to the enclosed village, was at the same time a small bridge over the old moat and that is why the collective memory has retained its name.
The structure consists of a simple semicircular arch framed with regular sized stone, well fluted and arranged in horizontal rows. You can still read, on the inside, the stonemason's marks that reveal the artisanal care of the factory. On both sides were preserved fragments of the wall and the cobbled ramp that connected it with the exterior; today, fully integrated into the urban fabric, the portal acts as a passage between the Plaza del Pont Romà and the square that leads to the parish.
Historically, the Roman Bridge performed defensive and fiscal functions: the town collected the penalty and controlled the traffic of goods. Municipal documents from the 17th century already mention repairs and replacements of dowels, proof of the intensive use of the pass. With the disappearance of the walls in the 19th century, the portal remained as a testimonial vestige and for decades was the only visible memory of the old enclosure.
The complex has undergone several maintenance interventions; the most important dates from the 1970s of the 20th century, when the environment was urbanized and the structure was consolidated in order to adapt it to road traffic. Despite the transformation, it retains the character of a symbolic threshold: whoever crosses the arch enters, literally, the historic heart of the Capital of Cava.
Today the Portal de Ponent appears in heritage routes and guided tours dedicated to the anecdotal village. Small in volume but of enormous emotional value, it is an obligatory photograph for visitors and a sign of identity for the neighbors, who celebrate every year the passage of parades and castle performances during the Festa Major.
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