Triumphal arch structure of seven metres high
It had a triumphal arch structure, but nowadays it is only preserved a curvature1 and the two pilasters2, lacking the entire entablature3. It has a span4 of four meters and the height of the preserved part has 5,80 meters, although it originally had more than seven.
The Cabanes Arch presents some simple and proportionate lines with an ornamental development limited to the bases and imposts5 with simple mouldings.
Its peculiar architectural characteristics may be due to the lack of available resources for its execution. It forced its promoters to use simple architectural characteristics closer to those used in lower category arches or that were part of larger architectural ensembles rather than the ones used in great monumental arches.
Large blocks of calcareous rocks
To construct it, there were used blocks of calcareous rocks from the area, probably from the close mountain Gaidó.
The bond is made from opus quadratum6, an ashlar construction with large proportioned blocks joined together with mortar. They are disposed upright and crossed in the pilasters. As most of the Roman arches, the curvature lacks the key7. The blocks of stone used in the construction were worked right there with pickaxes, maces and chisels and raised by the help of a sheerlegs8. Wood scaffolds allowed the movement of workers who hold the voussoirs9 by means of a formwork10 during the curvature assembly. Above it there was the entablature concluded by a cornice.
Specialists date its construction in the second century B.C., but its function is unknown
Due to the lack of protection from any kind, the monument was vandalized in some different ways, such as graffiti and the theft of some ashlars. In Pou de la Riba, a place located 200 metres away, there are preserved three of these pieces: two moulded and one with no decoration belonging to the entablature. They were casted to use them as cattle troughs. Today they are watched over in municipal warehouses. Likewise, in the façade of a house in Nou de Cabanes street, which belongs to a seventeenth century wall’s ancient tower, there is preserved a large ensemble of ashlars probably of the same provenance.
Before starting the restoration process of Cabanes Arch, test excavations to know the state of the monument’s foundations and stability were carried out between the months of December 1994 and January 1995. The first one was realized 5 metres away from the arch (following its longitudinal axis towards the north)
The fact of being next to a settlement from that period indicates that it could be a private honorary funerary monument