Bridge, cork and rice in Ponte de Sor
Ponte de Sor takes its name from a bridge over the Ribeira de Sor and grew as a meeting point of routes and later a Linha do Leste station. Read on for a cork industry dating from the late 19th century and a Museu Municipal set in a 1920 rice-husking factory with its original machinery.
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Ponte de Sor takes its name from a bridge, probably Roman, over the Ribeira de Sor, on whose right bank the city stands; it may have carried one of the Roman roads linking Mérida, capital of Lusitania, to Lisbon, and no trace of it remains. After the fall of the Roman Empire the area lost importance and, lying in a zone of constant conflict during the Reconquista, was only resettled in the 14th century, encouraged by King Dinis. It received privileges from several monarchs and a Manueline charter on 29 August 1514. Born as a place of passage where north–south and east–west routes met, the town grew around the river and the bridge, with inns and the Misericórdia hospital along the Rua Grande, today Rua Vaz Monteiro, to receive and treat travellers. The present bridge was built in 1822–23, altered in 1867 after a partial collapse and widened in 2004. The municipality reached its current size with the annexation of Galveias in 1836 and Montargil in 1871, and the railway arrived in the 1860s, making Ponte de Sor station one of the most important on the Linha do Leste. Cork followed in the late 19th century: around a dozen cork workers were already here in 1892, probably working for the British firm Henry Bucknall & Sons, the British Reynolds family opened a factory in 1902, and the Catalan multinational Mundet opened one in 1927; cork is still the municipality's main secondary activity. Ponte de Sor became a city by a law approved on 8 July 1985. Around 30 megalithic monuments have been identified in the parish of Montargil. The Centro de Artes e Cultura occupies a former cereal-milling and rice-husking factory built in 1920, and the Museu Municipal inside tells the story of rice growing and the rice industry, which marked the local economy for decades, and keeps the factory's original 1920s machinery.
The craft beer scene in Ponte de Sor is still waiting to be discovered, so look to nearby places such as Abrantes when planning where to find a local brew.
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Frequently asked questions
Ponte de Sor takes its name from a bridge, probably Roman, over the Ribeira de Sor, on whose right bank the city stands; no trace of it remains. The present bridge was built in 1822-23, altered in 1867 after a partial collapse and widened in 2004.
Around a dozen cork workers were already here in 1892, probably working for the British firm Henry Bucknall & Sons. The British Reynolds family opened a factory in 1902 and the Catalan multinational Mundet opened one in 1927. Cork is still the main secondary activity of Ponte de Sor.
The Centro de Artes e Cultura occupies a former cereal-milling and rice-husking factory built in 1920. The Museu Municipal inside tells the story of rice growing and the rice industry, which marked the local economy for decades, and keeps the factory's original 1920s machinery.