🗓️ Last reviewed: October 2026
The Clariano river runs through Ontinyent in a deep channel, and the Vila, the medieval quarter, looks down on it from above. Crossing it has always been a necessity, and each period of the town has solved it in its own way: with ashlar stone in the early 16th century, with dressed stone and brick in the 19th, with reinforced concrete in the mid-20th, with a great arch at the end of that same century and, in the 21st, with a footbridge for walkers. Read in order, the bridges tell how the town has grown on both sides of the river.
Upstream, at the Pou Clar, springs give the Clariano its year-round flow.
Pont Vell · 1500-1501
The Pont Vell (Old Bridge) was built in 1500-1501 at the foot of the Vila, and its arrival reshaped the medieval quarter's communications. It is built of ashlar, with two slightly flattened arches springing from the riverbed, and its roadway slopes gently down from the Cantereria to Plaça de Baix. Above the buttresses, the way widens into small recesses with long stone benches.
It is listed as a Site of Local Significance (Bé de Rellevància Local) and, after a restoration completed in 2023, it is open to pedestrians and cyclists.
Its history, its builders and what grew up around it (the Camí dels Carros, the Tirador dels Peraires, the Cantereria) are on its own page: the Pont Vell →
Pont Nou · 19th century
Downstream, on Avinguda de Sant Francesc, the Pont Nou (New Bridge) belongs to another period. The town's heritage catalogue dates it to around 1860-1893 and describes it as typical of 19th-century civil engineering: dressed stone and brick, three round arches and circular panels decorating the spandrels, the spaces between the arches.
It was later widened with concrete cantilevers and a metal railing, which altered its original appearance. It has full protection in the catalogue.
Santa Maria bridge · mid-20th century
Upstream of the Vila, Santa Maria bridge spans the Clariano gorge and links the Vila with the Sant Rafael district along Carrer Magdalena. It is made of reinforced concrete, is about 150 metres long and was built in the 1940s and 1950s. It has full protection in the town's heritage catalogue.
From the far side of the bridge you get one of the town's classic views: the hanging houses of the Vila old town above the river.
Salt del Bou bridge · late 20th century
Out on the ring road, further upstream, the Salt del Bou bridge crosses the gorge with a great arch. It dates from the late 1990s and belongs to the contemporary town: the traffic that skirts the centre.
The new footbridge · 2025
The newest crossing over the Clariano is not for cars. In July 2025 a footbridge 26 metres long and 2 metres wide opened between Les Mamàs Belgues park, in the Cantereria, and the Sant Josep district, next to the Molí Descals. It is part of the river restoration between the Pont Vell and the Pont Nou carried out by the Júcar River Basin Authority (Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar).
It is designed to flood: it rests on concrete frames that the water flows through, and its railings can be removed when high water is expected.
After centuries of bridges built to get over the river, this one is of a different kind: the land along the Clariano is regaining space for walking and for pedestrian links between neighbourhoods.
Sources: Ajuntament d'Ontinyent; catalogue of protected heritage of the Ontinyent General Plan (2007), entries 24, 84 and 148; Valencian Cultural Heritage Inventory; Júcar River Basin Authority; Salt del Bou project sheet (Urbinsa); Pont Vell restoration: Valencia Plaza (28 April 2023).
