Roman ruins of the Lúcio Craveiro da Silva Library

Between 1982 and 1997, several archaeological campaigns took place in the courtyard of the former District Hostel, known as Casa Grande de Santo António das Travessas, as part of a project to install a library there. During these interventions, important Roman-era structures were identified belonging to a domus (family residence), located to the east of a wide porticoed road, which was identified as the maximum cardo of Bracara Augusta.

On the west side of this road was another domus, of which only the remains of the portico have been preserved. Some of the ashlars of this structure are still visible on the outside of the building, while others have been integrated into its interior.

A large cloaca, built around the middle of the first century, has been identified under the maximum thistle, which was used to evacuate the city's waste water. The importance of this infrastructure justified its conservation under the sidewalk of the current library.

The intervened area corresponds to a central nucleus of the Roman city, near the forum, whose urbanization began around the middle of the 1st century. The archaeological remains make it possible to understand part of the organization of the domus, where stores have been identified opening onto the portico along the road. The remodeling phases of the residence are not well known, but everything indicates that it was abandoned during Late Antiquity. In contrast, the maximum thistle maintained its road function in the medieval and modern periods, and was then called Rua do Couro do Arvoredo.