A Roman bridge still in daily use, the Pietra Dell’Oglio spans the Ofanto river, the ancient Aufidus, at the border of Campania and Basilicata. It is one of two surviving candidates for the “Pons Aufidi” marked on the Peutinger Map, that extraordinary medieval copy of a Roman road diagram. Recent comparative archaeology has strengthened its claim, though the matter remains unresolved.
The bridge carries the Strada Comunale Fs di Monteverde, connecting to the Strada Statale 401 dir dell’Alto Ofanto e del Vulture at its southeastern end. Roman engineering of this sort was characteristically pragmatic: sturdy stone arches, a slight hump to shed water, and a width sufficient for carts and livestock. That this one still functions for local traffic, unremarked and unmonumentalised, is perhaps the truest compliment. It is not a tourist set-piece; it is a working fragment of the imperial road network, worn but resolute, crossing the same river it did two millennia ago.
Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.
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