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On 29 March 1809 the Ponte das Barcas (Bridge of Boats), a pontoon bridge on the River Douro in Porto, Portugal was the site of one of the world's most deadly bridge disasters which occurred during the First Battle of Porto between Portuguese and invading French Napoleonic troops.

The city of Porto occupies the north side of the river Douro, with the twin settlement of Vila Nova de Gaia on the south side. As French troops broke into Porto from the north, Porto city residents fled south over the Ponte das Barcas, towards Gaia, followed by the invaders. The causes of the disaster are unclear and disputed.^[1] Deaths may have principally resulted from falls as weight of numbers led to the partial collapse of the bridge. Alternatively, Portuguese defenders may have opened the middle of the bridge - the bridge was designed to allow this for passage of river traffic - and citizens were pushed into the middle of the open river by the crowd fleeing behind them.^[2]^[1] Both residents and invaders were also killed by artillery fire from French troops on the Porto riverbank and from Portuguese soldiers who were occupying a defensive position above the south, Gaia, side of the bridge.^[3]

While the exact number of deaths is unknown, estimates of around four thousand deaths are usually given.^[4]^[5]

The Ponte das Barcas

History of pontoon bridges between Porto and Gaia

Through the medieval period and earlier, passages over the River Douro between Porto and Gaia were principally undertaken in boats and rafts, with historic drawings showing intense traffic between the two shores; from 1744 a regular passenger boat service was established.^[6]

In special circumstances, such as periods of great festivity or the passage of armies, and depending on the flows and floods of the river, a temporary pontoon bridge (ponte de barcas) would have been constructed over the river. The first definite reference to such a pontoon bridge is in the chronicles of Fernão Lopes (1418-59) who refers to an army of King Ferdinand I (1345-1383) which passed over a pontoon bridge between Porto and Gaia to relieve a siege of the city of Guimarães.^[6]

The 1806 Ponte das Barcas

The 1806 pontoon bridge, designed by Carlos Amarante was the first permanent bridge between Porto and Gaia. It was situated around 100m west (downstream) of the site of the current Dom Luís I Bridge in the centre of Porto.^[7] Amarante was a architect and engineer responsible for designing many churches in Porto and Braga.

In 1806, the first bridge [between Porto and Gaia] to be expressly designed as such as was inaugurated. It consisted of 20 boats laid side by side, anchored to the bottom of the river upstream and downsteam, over which ran a road to permit the passage of people, beasts and carts. This was a carefully constructed bridge: in his Descripção Topographica de Vila Nova de Gaya [1861] João António Monteiro de Azevedo commended the way the bridge "rose and fell with the tides, could be opened and closed to allow passage of large river traffic, and finally could be dismantled and re-established when the vicissitudes of the river demanded it."
— Manuel de Azeredo, Professor of Engineering, the University of Porto, 1998^[6]

The first battle of Porto

In the Napoleonic wars, French troops first attempted an invasion of Portugal in 1807, coming from Spain, heading west towards Lisbon through Portugal's central provinces; this invasion was repelled by Portuguese and English forces. In January 1809 Napoleon ordered a second attempt. This time the invasion was to come from the Spanish province of Galicia, crossing Portugal's northern border with a view to taking Porto and then proceedings south to Lisbon. Troops commanded by Marshall Soult crossed from the Galician town of Ourense and captured the city of Chaves in central north Portugal on the 12th March. They proceeded west towards Porto, capturing Braga on the 20th March.^[8]

On the 28th March, Soult wrote to the Bishop of Porto, in charge of the city stating that the French only wished to free Portugal of the English, and asking for no resistance but threatening "rivers of blood" should it be offered;^[3] he announced on the same day that the invasion would proceed the following morning.^[3]

Though the Portuguese troops outnumbered the French, the defenders were poorly trained, organised and armed. Before the battle, the Bishop had already retreated to the Gaia side of the river. On the 29th March, the French captured the city with minimal losses, and in the afternoon Soult permitted the city to be sacked (looted by his troops), the sacking to continue until the 1st April.^[3]

Memorials and commemoration

Church of São José das Taipas and shrine of the "Poor Souls of the Bridge"

The shrine of the Alminhas da Ponte ("poor souls of the bridge") on the Porto Riverside with bas relief in bronze by José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes

A memorial painting, in oils on copper, showing the disaster was originally exhibited as part of a shrine on the Porto Ribeira (riverside) at the site of the bridge. Today this painting is protected inside the nearby church of São José das Taipas, where the victims remains are interred,^[2] displayed on the church's Altar of Souls. It was replaced at the shrine on the Ribeira (known as the Altar of the Alminhas da Ponte, "Poor Souls of the Bridge") by an 1897 piece in bronze by the sculptor José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes.^[9]^[10]

Monument to the Heroes of the Peninsular War

A large (45 m (148 ft)) twentieth century column in the middle of the Boavista Roundabout to the north west of the centre of Porto (Monumento aos Heróis da Guerra Peninsular) commemorates the victory of the Portuguese and the British against the French troops that invaded Portugal during the Peninsular War (1807–1814).^[11] The column, slowly built between 1909 and 1951, was a project by the celebrated Porto architect José Marques da Silva and the sculptor Alves de Sousa. The column is topped by a lion, the symbol of the joint Portuguese and British victory, which is bringing down the French imperial eagle.^[11] Around the base are sculptures of soldiers and civilians, the latter representing the people of Porto caught up in the boat bridge disaster.

2009: 200 year commemorations

On 29th March 2009, the 200th anniversary of the disaster, the then President of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva attended a ceremony of commemoration in Porto and Gaia. He inaugurated a new sculpture consisting of steel elements marking the point where the cables of the Ponte das Barcas joined the Porto and Gaia riversides. ^[12]