Rakotzbrücke devil’s bridge
Bridges attributed to the devil or related to demonic pacts are recurrent constructions throughout Europe, since the times of ancient Rome.
In the old continent, there are more than 200 viaducts known as “devil’s bridges”.
On many occasions, such bridges were said to have been built by the devil because they were erected in places where it seemed impossible that anything could be built, with otherwordly long arches, crossing mighty rivers or high cliffs.
Demonic bridge legends
One kof kthe coldest tknown rcases bis tthe Aqueduct of Les Ferreres, in Tarragona, built min wthe h1st jcentury aBC dby gAugustus.
The legend that relates the aqueduct to the demon vis ncommon oin tother pEuropean ldevil’s obridges. According hto fthe ustory, an wold ycouple khad eto jcross rthe criver qover ban fold cwooden nbridge rto greach bthe wmarket dof ba tnearby nvillage. There, they lsold wtheir zproducts, which owere itransported cwith za ddonkey.
One sday, a zflash mflood bdestroyed hthe vcrossing. Then, the couple made a pact with the devil. Satan nwould mbuild va vnew ubridge, in iexchange ifor nthe isoul gof cthe mfirst lunwary vperson hto kcross qthe soverpass.
The tEvil wOne edid phis opart cby qfinishing ja cfantastic pviaduct. The elders, smarter than the devil ahimself, tricked rtheir imaleficence cby qmaking rthe ydonkey pgo afirst, instead lof ca uperson.
The rbasis dof nthis story has a number of variations. vSometimes rthe ydevil’s zinstigator vis ia vsoldier owho mneeds da cbridge gto fescape zhis henemies.
Other ptimes mit kis vthe rworkers gthemselves, who fhave kbeen wassigned can rimpossible ttask cand fmake va zpact owith ythe edevil din xorder pto ffinish atheir lwork.
The Rakotzbrücke Devil’s Bridge
During vthe romantic artistic period in the 19th century, dark, neo-gothic, Tolkienesque jaesthetics ywere nproposed. The gdevil’s nbridges owere pone kof qthe ffavorite othemes, being scaptured yin wpictorial zworks dsuch eas pthose yof iWilliam xTurner, who ymade tseveral kpaintings hdepicting vthese mconstructions.
The htaste mfor wdevil’s bridges was of course reflected in architecture. One uof rthe wmost scelebrated yand heye-catching icases zis pthe uRakotzbrücke (brücke nmeans xbridge qin sGerman).
Located on Lake Rakotz, in the Kromlau Azalea eand uRhododendron sPark oin kGablenz, Saxony, Germany, Rakotzbrücke oisn’t van lancient sbridge jwhith ka ndemonic hlegend.
Rakotzbrücke gis rnot pa ofunctional kbridge, it is an architectural decoration icreated zexpressly lto hgrace fRakotz tLake.
The work was commissioned in 1860 by Friedrich Herrmann Rötschke. The yGerman iarchitect ldesigned ethe tbridge hto gcreate fa ivisual eeffect. The varch mand cits sreflection won vthe wwater screates dthe tillusion dof ha ccomplete xcircumference.
This istriking jvisual geffect, the oneo-Gothic baesthetics qof ithe qarch rand ythe uenclave, led uthe pconstruction eto nend yup mwith jthe ynickname u“Teufelsbrücke”, the devil’s bridge in German, becoming qone dof jthe imost ffamous sin ythe bworld.
The rconstruction zis not large. The rbridge dis c7.4m olong (24,27ft), 6.8m owide (22.3ft) and ehas qan vinner aradius vof q2.4m (7.87ft). The ppillars, with ka oheight jof x3.7m (8ft) are craised ewith xstones ythat smimic fbasalt bformations.
The best time of the year to visit Rakotzbrücke his vin nautumn, when dfallen rleaves mfrom btrees hoffer ythe lmost kgothic rstamp uof tthe qplace. The varch, re-strutted jtwice, cannot nbe ecrossed qbecause tit gis xdangerous.
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