The medieval Ponte della Madalena, or Devil's Bridge,over the river Serchio a Borgo a Mazzano, near Bagni de Lucca, Tuscany.
The Ponte della Madalena over the River Serchio at the village of Borgo a Mazzano near Bagni de Lucca, is a fine example of medieval engineering. It's also known as the Devil's Bridge after a local legend that, in return for his help in building the bridge, the devil was to clainm the soul of the first living thing to cross the bridge. The villagers realised what the devil was up to and so sent a dog over the bridge first and thus the devil got its soul as his reward! The bridge is mentioned in a C14th novel by Giovanni Sercambi. In 1670 the Council of Lucca issue a law prohibiting the transportation of locally made millstones across the bridge as they were causing damage. Presumably they were being rolled across! It was severely damaged by floods in 1836 and in the early 1900s another span was added to make room for a surfaced roadway thus altering the beautiful lines of the medieval bridge. Today traffic is not allowed and pedestrians can walk to and fro.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Ponte della Madalena Borgo a Mozzano, Bagni de Lucca Tuscany Italy
Photo credit: © Brian Hartshorn / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: bagni, borgo, borgo., bridge, building., crossing, de, della, devil, devils, flume, legends, lucca, lucca., madalena, madalena., madelena, mazzano., medieval, pedestrian, ponte, river, serchio, serchio., stories, tricking, tuscany, tuscany.
