The Valira del Nord, a river starting high in the Pyrenees, rushes over rocks below the single-arch Pont d’Ordino or Pont de l’Estarell, a reconstructed 15th century humpback bridge relocated in 1980 to make way for a new road. It was carefully rebuilt, stone by stone, at a new site north of Llorts in the Ordino Valley, Andorra, and its cobbled roadway is now barred to wheeled traffic.
Llorts, Ordino Valley, Andorra: a river flowing from high in the eastern Pyrenees surges over a rocky riverbed spanned by the single arch of the humpback Romanesque-style Pont de l’Estarell or Pont d’Ordino. The bridge, built in the 15th century, once carried the only road connection between the town of Ordino and the mountain village of El Serrat, further north in the valley. In 1980, to accommodate the construction of a modern road, it was moved stone by stone from Les Lloses d’Ordino, to the south, to its present verdant location just north of the hamlet of Llorts. The bridge was carefully reconstructed, with its cobbled roadway, flanked by ironstone parapets, closed to wheeled traffic. The Pont de l’Estarell spans the Valira del Nord, one of several tributaries of the Principality’s main river, the Gran Valira.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Lorts, Ordino Valley, Andorra
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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