Storm clouds mass beyond the River Ter and the graceful Pont Vell or Old Bridge at Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripollès, Catalonia, Spain. The original Romanesque bridge built in 1138 was reconstructed in Gothic style with a slender main arch believed to be the lightest of its type in the Iberian Peninsula.
Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripollès, Catalonia, Spain: storm clouds swirl in the distance beyond Pyrenean foothills surrounding this medieval Catalan town and the Pont Vell (Old Bridge), the graceful arched structure spanning the River Ter rebuilt several times after earthquake and war damage. 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 Gothic 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: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripollès, Catalonia, Spain.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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