The graceful Pont Vell or Old Bridge over the River Ter at Sant Joan de les Abadesses, in Catalonia, Spain, is the product of repairs and rebuilds, with the original 12th century structure transformed into a slender bridge, said to be the lightest Gothic bridge on the Iberian Peninsula, after earthquake damage in 1428.
Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripollès, Catalonia, Spain: the graceful Gothic arch of the Pont Vell (Old Bridge) spanning the River Ter has had to be rebuilt several times after it was damaged by an earthquake and in two wars. The original bridge, built in Romanesque style with a single arch between 1128 and 1138, linked medieval Sant Joan de les Abadesses and its monastery with the road to France. It was repaired in the 1300s, then rebuilt in Gothic style after a strong earthquake shook the town in 1428. That bridge also had to be rebuilt when it was damaged in 1690 during the Nine Years' War with France - only to be blown up by retreating Republican troops on 8 February 1939, near the end of the Spanish Civil War. The Pont Vell was rebuilt yet again in 1976, with the architects preserving some original Romanesque arches and the very slender main arch that makes the Pont Vell the lightest Gothic bridge on the Iberian Peninsula. Sant Joan de les Abadesses grew from a village clustered around a Benedictine nunnery founded in 887 AD. The nuns, expelled in 1017, were replaced by Augustinian and Benedictine monks. The monastery and the village both expanded, with Sant Joan growing into a fortified medieval town, defended by a strong wall pierced by six gateways and with 24 towers. Fragments of the wall survive, together with remnants of one tower.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripollès, Catalonia, Spain.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: -built, 1100s, 12th, abadesses, ad, ages, arch, arched, architecture, attractive, bridge, catalan, catalonia, ce, century, clouds, countryside, , dainty, damage, damaged, de, earthquake, elegant, gothic, graceful, green, iberian, joan, kerr, landscape, les, light, mediaeval, medieval, middle, peninsula, pont, rebuilds, rebuilt, repaired, repairs, ripollè, river, rural, sant, single, sky, slender, slight, spain, spanish, storm, stormy, summer, ter, terence, transformed, trees, vegetation, vell, war, water
