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The terrible destruction of the bridge at Mostar reminds me of another favourite bridge, Ponte Vecchio, over the River Arno in Firenze (Florence)...

The bridge has been there for almost 500 years, I think, with goldsmiths/jewellers occupying the shops on the bridge for much of that time.  I think the corridor on the top was added to connect the Uffizi on one side with a palace on the other: it is now a gallery.

The story goes that late in WWII, the retreating German commander was ordered to blow up all five Arno bridges, but decided that he could not destroy Ponte Vecchio.  A victory for civilisation?

by canberra boy (canberraboy1 at gmail dot com) on Thu Aug 18th, 2005 at 04:49:33 PM EST
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Your bridge reminds me of a bridge in my home town, Bad Kreuznach in south-west Germany:


The bridge was most likely built in 1311. I do not know exactly when the bridge houses were built, but they were first mentioned in a document from 1495. I'm not into the history of architecture, but I guess for the 15th century, this was impressive engineering. In the 30 years war, one of the houses was hit by a Swedish cannonball. But back then, weapon technology was not that destructive: today the cannonball can still be seen in one of the walls.

Here you can see it via webcam.

by Saturday (geckes(at)gmx.net) on Fri Aug 19th, 2005 at 05:07:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
BTW, about 20 meters left of the bridge, there is the Paulskirche where Karl Marx and Jenny von Westphal married in 1843.
by Saturday (geckes(at)gmx.net) on Fri Aug 19th, 2005 at 05:14:29 PM EST
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